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FOOTPRINTS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

PRESENTING

Many Interesting Facts, Reminiscences

and Illustrations Never Before

Published

J. T. HOBSON, D.D., LL.B.,

Author of "The Lincoln Year Book."

Nineteen Hundred and Nine

The Otterbein Press

Dayton, Ohio

THE AUTHOR

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

http://www.archive.org/details/footprintsofabraOOinhobs

DEDICATION

To all my Kindred, Friends, and Acquaintances among

whom are Fellow Ministers, Teachers, Students,

Pupils, and Parishioners, though Widely

Scattered, and to All Who Cherish

the Memory of

&bra|)am Eincoln

The Apostle of Human Liberty, Who Bound the Nation

and Unbound the Slave, This Little Volume

is Respectfztlly Dedicated by

THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Everything pertaining to the life of Abraham Lincoln is
of undying interest to the public.

It may at 'first appear unnecessary, if not presumptuous,
to add another volume to the already large number of
books in Lincoln literature. Hitherto efforts have been
made by the biographer, the historian, and the relic-hunter
to gather everything possible connected with the life of
Lincoln.

If an apology is needed in presenting this volume to the
public, it may be said that it has fallen as a rare oppor-
tunity to the author, during the passing years, to gather
some well-authenticated facts, reminiscences, and illustra-
tions which have never before appeared in connection with
the history of this great man.

Like many others, I have always taken great interest in
the life and work of Abraham Lincoln. There are some
special reasons for this, upon my part, aside from my
interest in the lives of great men, and the magnetic charm
which surrounds the name and fame of the most eminent
American and emancipator of a race.

The name, "Abraham Lincoln," is connected with my
family history, and with one of my first achievements with
pen and ink. Because of an affliction in early life, I was,
for two or three years, unable to attend the public schools.
At home I learned to make figures and letters with slate
and pencil, as other writing material was not so common
then as now. The first line I ever wrote with pen and ink
was at home, at the age of ten, under a copy on foolscap
paper, written by my sainted mother, "Abraham Lincoln,
President, 1861."

After the birth of John the Baptist, there was consider-
able controversy among the kinsfolk as to what name he
should bear. The father, old Zacharias, was appealed to,

Introduction

and when writing material was brought him, he settled
the matter by writing, "John." On the 7th of May, 1863,
when a boy baby was born in our old home, the other
children and 1 were very anxious to know what name
would be given the little stranger. We appealed to father.
He did not say, but called for the old family Bible, pen
and ink. He turned to the "Family Record," between the
Old and the New Testaments. I stood by and saw him
write, with pen and blue ink, the name, "Abraham Lincoln
Hobson."

I was born in due time to have the good fortune to
become acquainted with a number of persons who person-
ally knew Mr. Lincoln in his early life in Indiana, and
heard them tell of their associations with him, and their
words were written down at the time. I am also familiar
with many places of historic interest where the feet of
Abraham Lincoln pressed the earth. I resided for a time
near the old Lincoln farm in Spencer County, Indiana, on
which the town of Lincoln City now stands. I have often
visited the near-by grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the
"angel mother" of the martyred President; have stood by
the grave of Sally Grigsby, his only sister, at the Little
Pigeon Cemetery, one mile and a half south of the Lincoln
farm; have been in the Lincoln home at Springfield, Illi-
nois; have seen Ford's Theater building, in Washington,
where he was shot; have stood in the little rear room, in
the first story of the house across the street, where he
died; have been in the East Room of the White House,
where his body lay in state; and have reverently stood at
his tomb where his precious dust rests in peace in Oak
Ridge Cemetery, at Springfield, Illinois.

This volume can hardly claim the dignity of a biography,
for many important facts in the life of Mr. Lincoln are
omitted, the object being to set forth some unpublished
facts, reminiscences, and illustrations to supplement larger
histories written by others. However, it was necessary to
refer to some well-known facts in order to properly connect
the new material never before in print. It was necessary,
in some instances, to correct some matters of Lincoln his-
tory which later and more authentic information has re-
vealed.

Introduction

The illustrations were secured mainly for this publica-
tion, and none, so far as I know, except the frontispiece,
has ever appeared in any other book on Lincoln. I am
indebted to a number of persons who have assisted me in
securing information and photographs, most of whom are
mentioned in the body of the book.

This being the centennial year of Abraham Lincoln's
birth, it is with feelings of genuine pleasure and profound
reverence that the opportunity is here given me to exhibit
some "footprints" from the path of one whose life is
imprinted in imperishable characters in the history of the
great American republic. The excellent principles and
noble conduct that characterized his life should be an
inspiration to all. As Longfellow says:

"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time."

J. T. Hobson.
Lake City, Iowa, February 19, 1909.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Abraham Lincoln.

The Author.

Jacob S. Brother, who when a boy lived in the Kentucky
Lincoln cabin.

United Brethren Church on Indiana Lincoln farm.

Rev. Allen Brooner, an associate of Lincoln in Indiana.

Mr. and Mrs. Captain Lamar, who knew Lincoln in Indiana.

Honorable James Gentry, of Indiana.

Elizabeth Grigsby, one of the double wedding brides in
Indiana.

Ruth Jennings Huff, daughter of Josiah Crawford.

Rifle Gun owned jointly by Lincoln and Brooner in Indiana.

David Turnham, the Indiana Constable, and wife.

George W. Turnham, son of David Turnham.

William D. Armstrong, defended by Lincoln in 1858.

Hannah Armstrong, who boarded Lincoln; he later de-
fended her son.

Walker and Lacey, associated with Lincoln in the Arm-
strong case.

Moses Martin, still living, signed Lincoln's temperance
pledge in 1847.

Major J. B. Merwin, still living, campaigned Illinois with
Lincoln for prohibition in 1854-55.

Rev. R. L. McCord, who named Lincoln as his choice for
President, in 1854.

Site of the old still-house in Indiana, where Lincoln worked.

Triplets, yet living, named by Abraham Lincoln.

CHRONOLOGY

Born in Hardin (now Larue) County, Kentucky, February

12, 1809.
Moved to Spencer County, Indiana, in 1816.
His mother, Nancy, died October 5, 1818, aged 35 years.
His father married Sarah Bush Johnson, 1819.
Moved to Illinois, March, 1830.
Captain in Black Hawk War, in 1832.
Appointed postmaster at New Salem, Illinois, in 1833.
Elected to Illinois Legislature in 1834, 1836, 1838, 1840.
Admitted to the bar in 1837.
Presidential elector on Whig ticket, 1840, 1844.
Married to Miss Mary Todd, November 4, 1842.
Elected to Congress in 1846, 1848.

His father, Thomas, died January 17, 1851, aged 73 years.
Canvassed Illinois for State prohibition in 1855.
Debated with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858.
Nominated for President at Chicago, May 16, 1860.
Elected President, November 6, 1860.
Inaugurated President, March 4, 1861.
Issued call for 75,000 volunteers, April 15, 1861.
Issued Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863.
His address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19,

1863.
Renominated for President at Baltimore, June, 1864.
Reelected President, November 8, 1864.
Reinaugurated President, March 4, 1865.
Shot by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865.
Died April 15, 1865.
Buried at Springfield, Illinois, May 3, 1865.

CONTENTS

Dedication - 3

Introduction - 4

Illustrations --------- 7

Chronology of Abraham Lincoln ----- 8

CHAPTER I.
Lincoln's Birth and Early Life in Kentucky.
Unpromising Cradles — Site of the Log Cabin — Tangled
History Untangled — Jacob S. Brother's Statement —
Speaking with Authority — The Lincolns Move to Knob
Creek — "The Lincoln Farm Association" - - - 13

CHAPTER II.
The Lincolns Move to Indiana.
Early Hardships — "Milk Sickness" — Death of Lincoln's
Mother — Henry and Allen Brooner's Recollections —
Second Marriage of Thomas Lincoln — Marriage of
Sarah Lincoln — Redmond D. G-rigsby's Recollec-
tions— Death of Sarah G-rigsby — Mrs. Lamar's Rec-
ollections— Captain Lamar's Interesting Reminis^
cences — Honorable James Gentry Interviewed - - 17

CHAPTER III.
Indiana Associates and Incidents.
The Double Wedding — One of the Brides Interviewed —
"The Chronicles of Reuben" — Josiah Crawford's
Daughter — The Lincoln-Brooner Rifle Gun— David
Turnham, the Indiana Constable — The "Revised
Statutes of Indiana" 26

Contents

CHAPTER IV.
The Emigration to Illinois.
Preparations for Removal — Recollections of Old Ac-
quaintances— The Old Indiana Home — Blocks from
the Old House— The Cedar Tree— More Tangled His-
tory Untangled — Mr. Jones' Store — Various Experi-
ences in Illinois — Recollections of an Old Friend - 32

CHAPTER V.
Lincoln Visits the Old Indiana Home.
Lincoln an Admirer of Henry Clay — A Whig Elector —
Goes to Indiana — Makes Speeches — Old Friends and
Old-Time Scenes — Writes a Poem - - - - 36

CHAPTER VI.
Lincoln and the Armstrong Case.
Famous Law Cases — The Clary Grove Boys — The
Wrestling Contest — Jack and Hannah Armstrong-
Trial of Their Son for Murder — Lincoln's Tact, and
the Acquittal — Letters from the Surviving Attorney
in the Case — More Tangled History Untangled—
Unpublished Facts Connected with Parties in the
Case 39

CHAPTER VII.
Lincoln's Temperance Principles.
Promise Made to His Mother — Writes a Temperance
Article Before Leaving Indiana — Mr. Wood and Mr.
Farmer — Did Lincoln Sell Whisky — His Great Tem-
perance Address — Testimony of Associates — Moses
Martin's Letter — The Internal Revenue Bill - - 51

CHAPTER VIII.

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist.

Major J. B. Merwin and Abraham Lincoln — They

Together Canvass Illinois for State Prohibition in

1854-55 — Lincoln's Arguments Against the Saloon —

Facts Omitted by Lincoln Biographers — President

Contents

Lincoln, Generals Scott and Butler Recommend Mer-
win's Temperance Work in the Army — The President
Sends Merwin on a Mission to New York the Day of
the Assassination — Proposition for Freedmen to Dig
the Panama Canal — Lincoln's Last Words to Mer-
win— Merwin's Characteristic Address at Lincoln's
Tomb — "Lincoln the Christian Statesman" — Merwin
Living at Middlefield, Connecticut - - - - 57

CHAPTER IX.
Lincoln and the Slavery Question.
An Ancient Institution — The Evils of Slavery — Lincoln
Always Opposed to Slavery — Relic of "Cruel Slavery
Days" — Discussions, Laws, and Compromises — The
Missouri Compromise — The Fugitive Slave Law — The
Kansas-Nebraska Bill — Lincoln Aroused— He An-
swers Douglas — R. L. McCord Names Lincoln as His
Candidate for President — A New Political Party —
"Bleeding Kansas" — The Dred Scott Decision — "The
Underground Railroad" — The John Brown Raid — The
Approaching Crisis 68

CHAPTER X.
The Lincoln and Douglas Debates.
Candidates for the United States Senate — Seven Joint
Debates — The Paramount Issue — The "Divided
House" — "Acts of a Drama" — Douglas Charged Lin-
coln with Selling Whisky — Lincoln's Denial — A Dis-
covery— Site of the Old Still House in Indiana —
Douglas Elected — Lincoln the Champion of Human
Liberty ' 77

CHAPTER XI.
Lincoln Nominated and Elected President.
Rival Candidates — Great Enthusiasm — Lincoln's Tem-
perance Principles Exemplified — Other Nominations —
A Great Campaign — Lincoln's Letter to David Turn-
ham — Lincoln's Election — Secession — Lincoln Inaug-
urated— Douglas 83

Contents

CHAPTER XII.
President Lincoln and the Civil War.
The Beginning — Personal Recollections — The War
Spirit — Progress of the War — The Emancipation
Proclamation — A Fight to Finish — Lincoln's Kind-
ness— He Relieves a Young Soldier — He Names
Triplets Who Are Yet Living — His Reelection — The
Fall of Richmond — Appomattox — Close of the Re-
bellion ... - 87

CHAPTER XIII.
Death of President Lincoln.
Personal Recollections — The Tragic Event — Mr. Stan-
ton— A Nation in Sorrow — The Funeral — The Inter-
ment at Springfield, Illinois — The House in Which
President Lincoln Died — Changed Conditions — The
South Honors Lincoln — A United People — A Rich
Inheritance ... - 93

CHAPTER XIV.

Unpublished Official Documents.
A Discovery — Documents of Historic Value — Lincoln
Owned Land in Iowa — Copy of Letters Patent from
United States, under James Buchanan, to Abraham
Lincoln, in 1860 — Copy of Deed Executed by Honor-
able Robert T. Lincoln and Wife, in 1892— Other
Transfers — The Present Owner - - - - - 100

CHAPTER XV.
Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of
Lincoln's Birth.
Preparations — General Observance — President Roose-
velt Lays Corner-stone of Lincoln Museum at Lin-
coln's Birthplace— Extracts from Addresses at Various
Places — Closing Tribute 105

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

CHAPTEE I.
Lincoln's Birth and Early Life in Kentucky

Unpromising Cradles — Site of the Log Cabin — Tangled History
Untangled — Jacob S. Brother's Statement — Speaking with
Authority — The Lincolns Move to Knob Creek — The Lincoln
Farm Association.

It has been said truly that God selects unpromising
cradles for his greatest and best servants. On a cold
winter night, a hundred years ago, in a floorless log
cabin, the emancipator of a race was born. Like the
Eedeemer of mankind, there was "no room" in the
mansions of the rich and the great for such a child to
be born.

Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, natives of Vir-
ginia, were married by Eev. Jesse Head, a minister of
the Methodist Church, June 12, 1806, near Beechland,
Washington County, Kentucky. They settled at Eliza-
bethtown, Hardin County, where their first child, Sarah,
was born, February 10, 1807. In 1808 they moved to
a farm containing one hundred and ten acres, on the
south fork of Nolin Creek, two miles south of Hodgen-
ville, Hardin County, and fifty miles south of Louisville.
Hodgenville afterward became, and is now the county-
seat of Larue County, as that part of the territory now
embraced in Larue County was set off from Hardin
County in 1843. Here, on the twelfth of February,
1809, Abraham Lincoln was born.

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

The Hodgenville and Magnolia, public highway runs
through the farm. The site of the old log cabin in
which Lincoln was born is about five hundred yards
west of the road, and a short distance from the well-
known "Rock Spring." The old Kirkpatrick mill, on
Nolin Creek, is but a short distance away. The cabin,
of course, is no longer in existence, although various
publications have printed pictures of it, as though it
were still standing on the original spot. Misleading
statements have also been published that the original
cabin has been placed on exhibition in various cities.
Other publications, with more caution, have pictured
it as the alleged log cabin in which Lincoln was born.

Evidence is here introduced to untangle tangled his-
tory. Jacob S. Brother, now in his ninetieth year,
resides at Eockport, the county-seat of Spencer County,
Indiana, on the Ohio River, fifteen miles south of
Lincoln City, the site of the Lincoln farm in Indiana.
Mr. Brother is a highly-respected Christian gentleman.
I have known him for many years. On the thirtieth
of March, 1899, when visiting him, he incidentally told
me that his father purchased the Lincoln farm in' Ken-
tucky, and that the family lived in the cabin in which
Abraham Lincoln was born. On the eighth of Septem-
ber, 1903, I again visited him, and, at my request, he
gave a fuller statement, which I wrote out, and then
read it to him, all of which he said was correct, and is
here submitted :

"My name is Jacob S. Brother. My father's name was
Henry, but he was generally known as 'Harry.' I was born
in Montgomery County, Kentucky, March 8, 1819. In the
year 1827, when I was eight years old, my father pur-
chased the old farm on which Abraham Lincoln was born,

Lincoln's Birth and Early Life

in Kentucky. He purchased it of Henry Thomas. We
lived in the house in which Lincoln was born. After some
years, my father built another house almost like the first
house. The old house was torn down, and, to my knowl-
edge, the logs were burned for fire-wood. Later he built a
hewed log house, and the second old house was used as a
hatter-shop. My father followed the trade of making hats
all his life. The pictures we often see of the house in
which Lincoln was born are pictures of the first house
built by my father. He died in the hewed log house, and
my youngest brother, Joseph, was born in the same house
three weeks after father's death. Some time after father's
death, mother, I, and the other children moved to near
St. Joe, Missouri. The brother born on the Lincoln farm
enlisted in the Southern army, and was captured at Look-
out Mountain, and taken to Camp Morton, Indianapolis,
as a prisoner. My oldest brother, George, who was a
surgeon in the Union army, went to Washington City to
see President Lincoln, in order to get a reprieve for his
brother. Among other things, he told the President that
his brother and he (the President) were born on the same
farm. I do not know how much weight this had with the
President, but my brother was reprieved. I left Missouri
to avoid going into the Confederate army, and came to
Rockport, Indiana, in 1863, where I have ever since
resided."

At the time of this interview, I had with me some
newspaper and magazine articles, with illustrations,
descriptive of the old Lincoln farm in Kentucky, includ-
ing the "Kock Spring," Nolin Creek, the old water-
mill, Hodgenville, and other places, which were read
and shown the old gentleman. He was perfectly famil-
iar with all the points named, and mentioned a number
of other items. When the name of the creek, near the
farm, was pronounced with the accent on the first
syllable, he said, "We always pronounced it JSTo-lin'"
(with the accent on the second syllable). All these

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

statements are entitled to credit, as there could have
been no object in making any false representations.

When Abraham was about four years old the Lincolns
moved from the Rock Spring farm to a farm on Knob
Creek, in the eastern part of what is now Larue County.
Here a little boy, younger than Abraham, was buried.

Of late years considerable interest has been given to
Lincoln's birthplace. "The Lincoln Farm Association"
has been organized and incorporated, and the farm pur-
chased by a group of patriotic citizens who believe that
the people of our country should, through affiliating
with the organization, develop the farm into a national
park, embellished by an historical museum. Mrs. Russell
Sage has contributed $25,000 for this purpose, and
others are contributing. It is hoped that this most
worthy enterprise may be successful, and thus further
honor the immortal emancipator, and that the place will
be dedicated to peace and good will to all, where North,
South, East, and West may find a common ground of
pride and fellowship.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

CHAPTER II.
The Lincolns Move to Indiana

Early Hardships — "Milk Sickness" — Death of Lincoln's Mother —
Henry and Allen Brooner's Recollections — Second Marriage of
Thomas Lincoln — Marriage of Sarah Lincoln — Redmond P.
Grigsby's Recollections — Death of Sarah Grigsby — Mrs. Lamar's
Recollections — Captain Lamar's Interesting Reminiscences —
Honorable James Gentry Interviewed.

Thomas Lincoln moved with his family to southern
Indiana in the fall of 1816. There were two children,
Sarah and Abraham, the former nine, and the latter
seven years old. The family located in what was then
Perry County. By a change in boundary made in 1818,
that part of the county was made a part of the new
county of Spencer. The location was one mile and a
half east of where Gentryville now stands, and fifteen
miles north of the Ohio Eiver. The town of Lincoln
City is now located on the farm, and is quite a railroad
connecting point. Here the family lived fourteen years.
The county was new, and the land was not of the best
quality. The family was subject to the toils and priva-
tions incident to pioneer life. Lincoln, long afterward,
in referring to his early days in Indiana, said they were
"pretty pinching times."

Peter Brooner came with his family to the same
community two years before, and Thomas and Betsy
Sparrow, who reared Mrs. Lincoln and her cousin,
Dennis Hanks, came one year later than the Lincolns.

A peculiar disease, called "the milk sickness," pre-
vailed in the community in 1818. Thomas and Betsy

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Sparrow, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Brooner, and others died
of this disease near the same time. Thomas Lincoln,
having learned the carpenter and cabinet-makers trade
in Kentucky, made all their coffins from green lumber
sawed with a whip-saw. Their bodies were laid to rest
on the little hill a few hundred yards south of the
Lincoln home.

Peter Brooner had two sons, Henry and Allen. I
became acquainted with these brothers twenty-two years
ago. I was pastor of a church at Dale, three miles
from Lincoln City, two years, near where Allen lived,
and of a country church near where Henry lived. I
was frequently at their homes. They both knew Abra-
ham Lincoln quite well. The Thomas Lincoln and
Peter Brooner homes were only one-half mile apart.
Henry was five years older, and Allen was four years
younger than Abraham. "Uncle Henry," as he was
always called, gave me the following items, which I
wrote at the time, and have preserved the original
notes:

"I was born in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, Feb-
ruary 7, 1804. We came to Indiana in 1814, when Allen
was one year old. No man has lived longer in the State
than I have, for I have lived in it ever since it became a
State, and before. The Lincoln family came bo Indiana
two years later, and we lived one-half mile apart. During
my mother's last sickness, Mrs. Lincoln often came to see
her, and died just one week after my mother's death. I
remember very distinctly that when Mrs. Lincoln's grave
was filled, my father, Peter Brooner, extended his hand to
Thomas Lincoln and said, 'We are brothers, now,' meaning
that they were brothers in the same kind of sorrow. The
bodies of my mother and Mrs. Lincoln were conveyed to
their graves on sleds. I often stayed all night at Thomas
Lincoln's. Dennis Hanks and his sister Sophia lived with

The Lincolns Move to Indiana

Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, and at their deaths Dennis and
his sister heired the estate. I helped drive up the stock
on the day of the sale of the property. Dennis Hanks
married Lincoln's step-sister. I often went with Lincoln
on horseback to Huffman's Mill, on Anderson Creek, a
distance of sixteen miles. He had a great memory, and
for hours he would tell me what he had read."

Henry Brooner died April 4, 1890, two years after
the above statements were given, at the age of eighty-
six. Everybody loved and respected "Uncle Henry."
Reference will be made in another chapter to further
statements made by him on the same occasion.

Allen Brooner was nine years younger than his
brother Henry. He was born in Kentucky, October 22,
1813. He was a minister in the United Brethren
Church more than fifty years. Among other items, he
gave me the following, which were written at the time :

"During my mother's last sickness, Mrs. Lincoln, the
mother of Abraham Lincoln, came to see her. Mother said,
T believe I will have to die.' Mrs. Lincoln said, 'Oh, you
may outlive me.' She died just one week from the death
of my mother. This was in October, 1818. I was five years
old when mother died. I remember some one came to me
in the night and told me my mother was dead. Thomas
Lincoln made mother's coffin, and sawed the lumber with
a whip-saw to make the coffin. She was taken on a sled to
the graveyard on a hill, one quarter of a mile south of
where Lincoln City now stands. Old man Howell took
the corpse. Ho rode the horse hitched to the sled, and
took me up, and I rode on the horse before him. I remem-
ber that his long beard bothered me. We did not have
wagons in those days. The first wagon I ever saw, my
father made, and it had wooden tires."

Reference will be made again to some facts stated by
this associate of Abraham Lincoln. "Uncle Allen" died
at his old home, near Dale, Spencer County, Indiana,

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

April 2, 1902, in his eighty-ninth year, respected by all.
I am indebted to his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Knowlton,
for his photograph, taken at seventy-five years of age.

Xancy Hanks Lincoln died October 5, 1818, when
her daughter Sarah was eleven and her son Abraham
was nine years old. Abraham's mother had taught
him to read and write, and, young as he was, he wrote
for an old minister, David Elkin, whom the family had
known in Kentucky, to come and preach his mother's
funeral. Some time after, the minister came and the
funeral was preached at the grave where many people
had gathered. The minister stated that he had come
because of the letter he had received from the little son
of the dead mother. As I have stood by that grave, in
my imagination I have seen that primitive congrega-
tion— the old minister, the lonely husband, and the two
motherless children, Sarah and Abraham, on that sad
occasion.

After the death of Thomas and Betsy Sparrow,
Dennis Hanks and his sister Sophia became inmates of
the Lincoln home.

For many years Mrs. Lincoln's grave was neglected.
But few persons were buried at that graveyard. In
1879, Mr. P. E. Studebaker, of South Bend, Indiana,
erected a marble slab at the grave, and some of the
citizens of Rockport enclosed it with an iron railing.
Later a larger and more appropriate monument has
also been placed at the grave, and several acres sur-
rounding, forming a park, have been enclosed with an
iron fence. The park is under the control of an asso-
ciation which has been incorporated.

In December, 1819, Thomas Lincoln went to Ken-
tucky and married a widow, Sarah Bush Johnston,

The Lincolns Move to Indiana

whom he had known there before coming to Indiana.
She had three children, John, Matilda, and Sarah. She
was a most excellent woman, and proved worthy of a
mother's place in the home of Thomas Lincoln. Dennis
Hanks married one of the daughters, and Levi Hall
married the other.

In August, 1826, at the age of nineteen, Sarah
Lincoln, or Sally, as she was commonly called, was
married to Aaron Grigsby, the oldest of a large family
of boys. Learning that Redmond D. Grigsby resided
near Chrisney, Spencer County, Indiana, I called upon
him October 18, 1898. After being introduced by a
friend, I asked him, "What relation were you to Aaron
Grigsby, who married Abraham Lincoln's sister?" "He
was my oldest brother, sir," answered the old gentle-
man. He said he was born in 1818, and was at that
time eighty years old. He said that he and Lincoln
were often thrown together, he at the home of his
brother and Lincoln at the home of his sister. Mr.
Grigsby said that when Abraham would start off with
other boys, he had often heard Sally admonish him as
to his conduct. Then Abraham would say, "Oh, you be
good yourself, Sally, and Abe will take care of him-
self.*' We shall have occasion to refer to Mr. Grigsby
again. He still resides at Chrisney ; is now ninety years
of age and quite feeble.

Sally Grigsby died in childbirth January 20, 1828,
less than two years after her marriage. Her body sleeps
in the old Pigeon Creek Cemetery, one mile and a half
south of where her mother is buried.

Mrs. Lamar, the wife of Captain Lamar, who resided
at Buffaloville, a short distance east of Lincoln City,
said to me, in her home, September 8, 1903 :

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

"I remember old Tommy Lincoln. I sat on his lap many
times. I was at Sally Lincoln's infare dinner. I remember
the night she died. My mother was there at the time.
She had a very strong voice, and I heard her calling father.
He awoke the boys and said, 'Something is the matter.'
He went after a doctor, but it was too late. They let her
lay too long. My old aunt was the midwife."

Mrs. Lamar is still living in Spencer County, Indi-
ana. At the same time, I interviewed Captain John
W. Lamar. I copied the date of his birth from the
record in his Bible. He was born December 9, 1822,
and although but a small boy when the Lincolns
removed to Illinois, he remembers Abraham Lincoln
quite well. At the time of my interview, I had a clip-
ping from the Indianapolis News of April 12, 1902,
containing some items pertaining to his recollections
of Lincoln, which were read to him. The clipping is
as follows :

"Captain J. W. Lamar, of Buffaloville, Spencer County,
a delegate to the Republican State Convention, knew Abra-
ham Lincoln when the latter lived in Spencer County. He
is past eighty years old, but his memory is keen, and he
is unusually vigorous for a man of his age. He is six feet
tall, broad-shouldered, with flowing white hair and beard,
making him one of the picturesque figures of the conven-
tion crowd. Lincoln is his favorite theme, and he delights
to talk of him.

" 'I well remember the first time I saw Abe,' he said.
'My father took me to Troy, at the mouth of Anderson
River, to do a little trading, and Lincoln was at that time
working at the ferry. Dressed in the frontiersman's coon-
skin cap, deerskin shirt, and home-made trousers, he was
indelibly impressed upon my memory as being one of the
gawkiest and most awkward figures I ever saw. From that
time on I saw him very often, as he lived near, and worked
for my father frequently. He and my father and his
father all helped to build the old Pigeon meeting-house,

The Lincolns Move to Indiana

near which Abe's only sister, Sally, was buried. Tom
Lincoln, Abe's father, often did odd jobs of carpentering
for us.

" 'One day, about a year after I first saw Lincoln, my
father and I went over to old Jimmy Gentry's store, where
the town of Gentryville now stands. When we got there,
I noticed Lincoln out by an old stump, working very indus-
triously at something. On going nearer, I saw that he was
figuring or writing on a clapboard, which he had shaved
smooth, and was paying no attention to what was going on
around him. My father remarked to me then that Abe
would be somebody some day, but, of course, did not have
any idea how true his words would come out.

" 'Many times have I seen him studying at odd moments,
with a book or something to write on, when others were
having a good time. That was what made him so great.

" 'In August, before the spring that the Lincoln's left for
Illinois, a township election was held at a log house near
where the town of Santa Fe now stands. . . . All the men
in the neighborhood were gathered there, and conspicuous
among them was one, Sampson, a braggart and bully. He
was storming around, praising a horse he had.

" ' "Why," said he, "I ran him four miles in five minutes
this morning, and he never drew a long breath!"

" 'Abe, who was sitting on a rail fence near me, remarked
quietly to him, "I suppose, though, Mr. Sampson, he drew
a good many short ones."

" 'This was just the opening Sampson was looking for,
so he began to bluster up to Lincoln. After standing abuse
for a few minutes, Abe told him to hush up or he would
take him by the nape of the neck and throw him over the
fence. [At this point the old captain interrupted my read-
ing, and said, "Lincoln did not say he would throw him
over the fence, but said he would throw him into a pond of
water near by."] This had an effect, and Sampson shut
up. because he knew Abe could, and would do what he said.

" 'My father's house was on the road between Gentryville
and the nearest trading-point on the Ohio River, at Troy.
To this place the settlers took their deer and bear hides,
venison hams, and other game, for which they received

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

clothes, powder, and other necessary articles. Lincoln and
his father had constructed a wagon for old man Gentry,
made entirely out of wood, even to the hickory rims to the
wheels.

" 'This they loaded with produce, and started for Troy.
Arriving at my father's house, a rain had swollen the
creek near there, so that they decided to stay all night,
and wait for the water to subside. During the night wolves
stole nearly all the venison from the wagon. That which
belonged to the Lincolns was not touched, however; it was
in the bottom of the wagon. My father was a very serious
man, and scarcely ever smiled, but Abe, with his droll
ways and pleasant humor, always made him laugh.

" 'A great grief, which affected Abe through his life, was
caused by the death of his only sister, Sally. They were
close companions, and were a great deal alike in tempera-
ment. About a year after her marriage to one of the
Grigsbys, she died. This was a hard blow to Abe, who
always thought her death was due to neglect. Abe was
in a little smoke-house when the news came to him that
she had died. He came to the door and sat down, burying
his face in his hands. The tears trickled through his large
lingers, and sobs shook his frame. From then on he was
alone in the world, you might say.' "

In addition to the foregoing interesting reminiscences,
the, captain related to me other important items, some
of which are here given as he related them:

"Old Si Crawford, the man who loaned Lincoln the book
which was damaged, was my uncle. I remember one time
Lincoln came to our place when my father was sitting on
a shaving-horse, doing some work. Other boys and I were
standing near by. Mr. Lincoln, addressing us, said, 'Well,
boys, what have you learned to-day?' No one answering,
he said, 'I wouldn't give a cent for a boy who doesn't know
more to-day than he knew yesterday.' This remark greatly
impressed me, and I have never forgotten it.

"Old Uncle Jimmy Gentry, who founded the town of
Gentryville, kept a store there. He was somewhat illit-

The Lincolm Move to Indiana

erate. I remember hearing him and Major Daniels talking,
when the major asked him what per cent, he was making
on the sale of his goods. Uncle Jimmy replied, 'God bless
your soul, I don't know anything about your per cent, but
I know when I buy an article in Louisville for a dollar,
and sell it in Gentryville for two dollars, I double my
money every time.' "

Captain Lamar died November 4, 1903, a little more
than two months after my visit to him, at the age of
eighty-one. Mrs. Lamar is still living in Spencer
County.

The same clay, after leaving the Lamars, I called
upon the Honorable James Gentry, at Rockport. He
was the son of James Gentry, the founder of Gentry-
ville. He was born February 24, 1819, and was ten
years younger than Lincoln. He related much about
Lincoln, some things which will be found in another
chapter. He repeated the story about his brother, Allen
Gentry, and Lincoln taking a flatboat, loaded with farm
products, down the Ohio River to Xew Orleans, the
attack of the negroes and how they were driven away.
Mr. Gentry said, "If ever a man was raised up by
Providence, it was Lincoln, for he had no chance."' Mr.
Gentiy was elected on the Democratic ticket to the
Indiana Legislature of 1871. He gave me his picture,
reproduced herein, but it represents him much younger
than when I saw him. He died May 3, 1905, at the
age of eighty-six.

CHAPTER III,
Indiana Associates and Incidents

The Double Wedding — One of the Brides Interviewed — "The
Chronicles of Reuben" — Josiah Crawford's Daughter — Th<>
Lincoln-Brooner Rifle Gun — David Turnhani, the Indiana
Constable — The "Revised Statutes of Indiana."

Reuben Grigsby had quite a family of son.?. Aaron,
the oldest, who married Lincoln's sister, and Redmond
]).. the youngest, have already been mentioned. Two
sons, Reuben and Charles, were married the same day,
the former married in Spencer County and the latter
in Dubois, the adjoining county on the north. A double
infare dinner was given at old Reuben Grigsby's, the
day following the marriages. The Grigsbys were
regarded as belonging to the "upper ten" class in those
days, for they lived in a two-story hewed-log house.

On the sixth of April, 1899, I met Elizabeth Grigsby,
commonly called "Aunt Betsy," one of the brides, the
widow of Reuben, Jr., at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Justin Banks, near Grand view, Spericer County. She
was in her eighty-seventh year. She was cheerful, and
bright in her mind, and had a good knowledge of cur-
rent events. I requested her to give me a sketch of her
life, and stated that it might prove useful and interest-
ing as a matter of history. She thought that, perhaps,
what I said might be true, and cheerfully gave the fol-
lowing:

"My father, Ezekiel Ray, was born in Ireland, and came
to America at the age of three years, and his father settled
in Tennessee. My father and a number of others, among

Indiana Associates and Incidents

them Mr. Grass and Mr. Lamar, came to Indiana, and set-
tled where Grandview now stands. My father died when
I was five years old. I had one sister and five brothers.
I was next to the youngest child. My mother remained a
widow, and died twelve years after the death of my father.
I had sixty acres of land left to me, my part of father's

"I was married to Reuben Grigsby on the 15th of April,
1829, before my seventeenth birthday, which was June 1,
following. Charles, my husband's brother, was married
the same day. We had infare dinner at the home of my
husband's father, Reuben Grigsby, three miles south of
Gentryville. My husband and I arrived about two hours
before the other couple arrived. John Johnston, Abraham
Lincoln's step-brother, told a story about a mistake made
by the brothers in going to bed upstairs that night, which
led to a fight between himself and William Grigsby, a
brother of the two who were married. This story told by
John Johnston occasioned the writing of 'The Chronicles
of Reuben,' by Abraham Lincoln, a short time afterward.
I saw Lincoln at my father-in-law's two days after our
marriage. He was not a good looking young man.

"Sally Lincoln, Abraham's only sister, married Aaron
Grigsby, my husband's oldest brother, but that was before
my marriage. I never saw her, for she died about three
years after her marriage. I have seen Thomas Lincoln,
but was not acquainted with him. My husband and Abra-
ham Lincoln attended the same school. My husband never
had a sister that he thought more of than he did of Sally
Lincoln.

"After our marriage on Thursday, we moved to my place,
where Grandview now is. I have been a member of the
United Brethren Church about forty-five years. My hus-
band joined the church about eight years before I joined.
He was a class-leader for many years. He died sixteen
years ago last January. I have raised eight children, but
only four are living, one son and three daughters.

"I am not much account any more, but I am still here.
My health has been better the past winter than common.
My eyesight is good. I have never used spectacles, but 1

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

have trouble sometimes in threading a fine needle. My
teeth are all gone, except two old snags. I am living on
my farm of forty acres, two miles northwest of Grandview.
I have a house of four rooms. I rent my farm and three
rooms, reserving one room for myself. I do my own cook-
ing, and eat alone."

"Aunt Betsy" died March 27, 1901, two years after
the interview mentioned, in her eighty-ninth year. Her
picture, secured for this book, through her daughter,
Mrs. Eneo, residing in Spencer County, is a good one.

"The Chronicles of Reuben,*'' mentioned by "Aunt
Betsy," were written in scripture style, but no copy has
been preserved. Thomas Bunton, an aged citizen of
Gentryville, told me that he remembered hearing the
"Chronicles'* read when he was a boy. Redmond D.
Grigsby told me, in my interview with him, that he was
in possession of them for some time, but they were lost
or destroyed. He said the "Chronicles" were no credit
to Mr. Lincoln. Those purporting to be the "'Chron-
icles" in Herndon and Weiks" "Life of Lincoln," were
written by Herndon as remembered by Mrs. Crawford,
the wife of Josiah Crawford. Dr. W. S. Bryant, of
Dale, told me, some years ago, that he accompanied
Herndon, in 1865, to the Crawford place, when the
"Chronicles'* were written as before stated. It had then
been thirty-six years since they were written.

The Grigsbys were much irritated when the "Chron-
icles" were written, and have protested against their
becoming a matter of history. It is alleged that they
were written to humiliate the Grigsbys for slighting-
Lincoln in the invitations to the infare. The account
of the fight between John Johnston and William Grigsby
is mentioned in full in Lamon's "Life of Lincoln," but

Indiana Associates and Incidents

whether all the details there mentioned are true no one
can say.

The day I visited Captain and Mrs. Lamar, already
referred to, at their request, I visited the captain's
cousin, Mrs. Kuth Jennings Huff, residing in Buffalo-
ville. She was the only surviving child of Josiah Craw-
ford. She said she was the middle child of five children,
three brothers and one sister. She showed me a corner
cupboard made by Thomas Lincoln and his son Abra-
ham for her father. Her father died about thirty
years before my visit. In the distribution of the prop-
erty among the children, among other things, she chose
the cupboard. After telling many things she had heard
her parents say about Lincoln, I ventured to ask if she
ever heard of the "Chronicles of Reuben." Her quick,
characteristic reply was, "Lord, yes ; I 've heard mother
toll it a thousand times." Mrs. Huff died at the resi-
dence of her son, S. H. Jennings, in Rockport, Indiana,
December 26, 1906, in her eightieth year. Mr. Jennings
is the present owner of the cupboard referred to, and he
writes me that he would not part with it for any reason-
able price. I am indebted to him for a good photograph
of his mother.

In the latter part of the 'twenties, Abraham Lincoln
and Henry Brooner walked to Vincennes, Indiana, a
distance of more than fifty miles, and while there they
purchased a rifle gun in partnership for fifteen dollars.
They hunted for game on their way back home. When
the Lineolns moved to Illinois in 1830, Mr. Brooner
purchased Mr. Lincoln's interest in the gun. He kept
it until 1872, when he presented it to his adopted son
Samuel, on the day of his marriage. I purchased the
gun of Samuel Brooner, September 7, 1903. Of course,

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

the gun was originally a "flint-lock." It was changed
to shoot with percussion caps. John F. Martin, now
living at Dale, in his seventy-eighth year, and a son-in-
law of Henry Brooner; John W. Kemp, now sixty-three,
a justice of the peace, born and reared on a farm adjoin-
ing Henry Brooner, and Samuel Brooner, each made
oath as to their knowledge of the gun. I have known
all these persons for more than twenty years, and know
their testimony to be first class. The gun is now in
possession of John E. Burton, of Lake Geneva, Wis-
consin.

Nearly all the Lincoln biographies mention the fact
that Lincoln often read and studied the "Revised Stat-
utes of Indiana," which he borrowed of David Turnham,
a constable, who lived near the Lincolns in Indiana.
Mr. Tumham's father and family came to Indiana and
settled in Spencer County, in 1819. Turnham and
Lincoln went hunting together and attended the same
school, although Turnham was six years older, as he
was born August 2, 1803. "The Revised Statutes,"
besides containing the constitution and laws of Indiana,
contained the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States. No doubt it was in
this book that Lincoln first read those important docu-
ments. Mr. Turnham gave the book to Mr. Herndon
in 1865, when he was gathering material for the "Life
of Lincoln." After being in several hands, the book is
now said to be in possession of W. H. Winters, librarian
of the New York Law Institute.

Twenty years ago I visited the home of David Turn-
ham's widow, now deceased, who knew Mr. Lincoln, and
I was well acquainted with the two sons, John J. and
George W., who then resided at Dale. David Turnham

Indiana Associates and Incidents

died August 2, 1884, at the age of eighty-one. I am
under obligation to my esteemed friend, George W.
Turnham, now of Evansville, Indiana, for information
concerning his father, for a copy of Lincoln's letter ta
his father, found elsewhere in this book, and for his
father's and mother's pictures, which have never before
appeared in any publication.

CHAPTER IV.
The Emigration to Illinois

Preparations for Removal — Recollections of Old Acquaintances —
The Old Indiana Home — Blocks from the Old House — The
Cedar Tree — More Tangled History Untangled — Mr. Jones'
Store — Various Experiences in Illinois — Recollections of an
Old Friend.

After residing in Indiana fourteen years, and having
rather a rough experience, Thomas Lincoln, through
the inducements of others, concluded to move to Illi-
nois. Abraham was now twenty-one years old. The
farm products were sold to David Turnham. The
family started March 1, 1830. Other families accom-
panied them.

Expressions made to me, and written at the time by
different persons who remembered the departure of the
Lincolns, are here given :

Allen Brooner said: "I remember when the Lincoln
family left for Illinois. Abraham and his step-brother,
John Johnston, came to my father's to trade a young
horse for a yoke of oxen. The trade was made. John
Johnston did most of the talking."

Redmond D. Grigsby said : "I was twelve years old
when the Lincolns left for Illinois. I helped to hitch
the two yokes of oxen to the wagon, and went with them
half a mile."

James Gentry said : "I was eleven years old when
the Lincoln family started to Illinois. They stayed at
my father's the night before they started."

Mrs. Lamar said : "I remember when the Lincolns
left for Illinois. All the neighbors went to see them

At Lincoln
The autlu
preached in this church

BRETHREN CHURCH,

Indiana, on the old Lincoln farm,
presiding elder, has officiated and

The Emigration to Illinois

start. All the surroundings, to my mind, are as plain
as things are now in my kitchen."

The old Indiana house, built by Thomas Lincoln, in
1817, was torn down, and the logs shipped away, many
years ago, except one log. Isaac Houghland, a reliable
man and merchant of Lincoln City, was in possession
of this log, and stated to me that a man by the name
of Skelton said he would make oath that it was one of
the logs of the old Lincoln house. Mr. Houghland
kindly gave me two blocks, which I saw his son chop
from the log.

A cedar-tree stands near where the Lincoln house
stood. A number of unreliable stories concerning this
tree have been told in various Lincoln biographies,
magazine and newspaper articles. Some state that the
tree was planted by Abraham Lincoln ; others, that
James Gentry planted the tree the day the Lincolns
started to Illinois, in honor of his friend, Abraham.
James Gentry, many years ago, purchased several hun-
dred acres of land around and including the Lincoln
farm. He told me, in the interview before mentioned,
that he planted the cedar-tree in 1858. I wrote that
fact in his presence, and have preserved the original
paper on which it is written. The tree was planted
twenty-eight years after the Lincolns vacated the prem-
ises. Some, of the citizens of Lincoln City do not know
the true history of the tree. Some yet believe Lincoln
planted it, and hundreds of visitors have almost stripped
the tree of its twigs and branches with the same delusive
idea. Here is more "tangled history untangled."

William Jones kept a store at Gentryville some, years
before, and at the time the Lincolns went away, Abra-

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

ham often worked for Mr. Jones, and read newspapers
at the store. Before leaving he bought thirty-five dol-
lars' worth of goods from Mr. Jones to sell on the way
out to Illinois. He wrote back that he doubled his
money on the investment. Mr. Jones was bom in
Vincennes, Indiana, January 5, 1800. He was a mem-
ber of the Indiana Legislature from 1838 to 1841. He
was killed while in command as colonel of the Fifty-
third Indiana Regiment, at Atlanta, Georgia, July 22,
1864. I gather these facts, mainly, from an article
furnished a newspaper by Captain William Jones, of
Rockport, Indiana, a son of Colonel William Jones. I
knew Captain Jones at Dale, many years ago.

The Lincolns were about two weeks on their journey
to Illinois. They first settled near Decatur. Thomas
Lincoln moved a time or two after, and finally settled
on Goosenest Prairie, near Farmington, in Coles
County, where he died January 12, 1851, at the age of
seventy-three. Lincoln's step-mother, whom he loved
very dearly, died April 10, 1869, in her eighty-first year,
and four years after the death of her famous step-son.

After his removal to Illinois, Abraham Lincoln did
not remain much of the time at home. I shall not
follow his history here in detail. His rail-splitting pro-
clivities; his Black Hawk War record; Iris experience
as a merchant and postmaster; his career as a lawyer;
his election at various times to the Illinois Legislature ;
his election to Congress; his marriage, and many other
matters of history are found in most any of his numer-
ous biographies. Whatever reference may be made to
any of these periods in his history will be for the pur-
pose of introducing new material.

The Emigration to Illinois

The following, relative to some of Lincoln's early
experiences in Indiana, was related to me by one of
Lincoln's early Indiana friends, Allen Brooner :

"I went to Illinois in 1835-36. Most of the time I was
there I worked at the carpenter trade at Petersburg. "We
were getting out timber for a mill. The owner made me
'boss.' At that time Abraham Lincoln was postmaster at
New Salem. He was also keeping a store at the time.
While I was there, Lincoln made a mistake in his own
favor of five cents in trading with a woman. When he
discovered his mistake, he walked two and a half miles to
correct the mistake. The county surveyor came to see
Lincoln while I was out there, and wanted to make him
his deputy. Lincoln said, 'I know nothing of surveying.'
'But,' said the surveyor, 'they tell me you can learn any-
thing.' Not long afterward I saw Lincoln out surveying.
When Lincoln would hand me my mail he would often
inquire about the Spencer County people and the old
acquaintances. In his conversation he always put the best
construction on everything."

CHAPTER V.
Lincoln Visits the Old Indiana Home

Lincoln an Admirer of Henry Clay — A Whig Elector — Goes to
Indiana — Makes Speeches — Old Friends and Old-Time Scenes —
Writes a Poem.

Lv 1844, Henry Clay was a candidate for President
of the United States, on the Whig ticket. Abraham
Lincoln was a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and referred
to him as his "beau-ideal of a statesman." He was
placed on the Whig ticket as presidential elector, and
made speeches in favor of Mr. Clay's election. During
the canvass he visited his old home and acquaintances
in Indiana for the first time since he left, fourteen years
before, and it was his only visit to the home of his
youth.

On the 22d of October, 1898, Thomas Bunton, then
seventy-five years old, said to me: "I heard Lincoln
speak in Gentryville in 1844. 1 saw him coming to the
place of meeting with Mr. Jones. I heard Lincoln say,
'Don't introduce me to any one; I want to see how
many I can recognize.' He went around shaking hands,
and when he came to me he said, 'This is a Bunton.' "

Captain Lamar said, at the time of my visit to him
already mentioned : "At the close of Lincoln's speech,
near Buffaloville, he said, 'Friends and fellow-citizens,
1 may never see you again, but give us a protective tariff
and you will some day see the greatest nation the sun
ever shone over.' While saying this he pointed to the
east and, raising his hand, he closed the sentence point-
ing to the west. From the speaking I went with him

Lincoln Visits the Old Induing Home

to Si Crawford's for dinner. He talked much about
old times, places, and people familiar to him in other
days. The last words Abe said to me were these, 'You
are comparatively young, God bless you, I may never
see you again.' "

Mr. Lincoln was so impressed by his visit to the old
home that he wrote a descriptive poem, which is pub-
lished in some of the Lincoln biographies. The follow-
ing letter, written in 1846, explains why he wrote the
poem :

"The piece of poetry of my own which I allude to I was
led to write under the following circumstances: In the
fall .of 1844, thinking I might aid to carry the State of
Indiana for Mr. Clay, I went to the neighborhood in that
State in which I was raised, where my mother and my
only sister are buried, and from which I had been about
fifteen years. That part of the country is, within itself,
as unpoetical as any spot of the earth; but still, seeing it
and its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me
which were certainly poetry, though whether my expression
of these feelings is poetry is quite another question. When
I got to writing, the change of subject divided the thing
into four little divisions, or cantos, the first only of which
I send you, and may send the others hereafter."

"My childhood's home I see again,

And sadden with* the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There 's pleasure in it, too.

"O memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed, and loved ones lost,
In dreamy shadows rise;

"And, freed from all that 's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle,
All bathed in liquid light.

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

'As dusky mountains please the eye,

When twilight chases day;
As bugle notes that, passing by,

In distance die away;

'As leaving some grand waterfall,

We, lingering, list its roar;
So memory will hallow all

We 've known, but know no more.

Near twenty years have passed away

Since here I bid farewell
To woods and fields, and scenes of play,

And playmates loved so well;

'Where many were, but few remain,

Of old, familiar things;
But seeing them to mind again
The lost and absent brings.

'The friends I left that parting day,

How changed! as time has sped
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,

And half of all are dead.

'I hear the loud survivors tell

How naught from death could save,

Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.

"I range the fields with pensive tread,

And pace the hollow rooms,
And feel (companions of the dead),
I 'm living in the tombs."

CHAPTER VI.
Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

Famous Law Cases — The Clary Grove Boys — The Wrestling Con-
test— Jack and Hannah Armstrong — Trial of Their Son for
Murder — Lincoln's Tact and the Acquittal — Letters from the
Surviving Attorney in the Case — More Tangled History
Untangled — Unpublished Facts Connected with Parties in the
Case.

Lincoln, as a lawyer, was employed in a number of
noted cases involving great interests. One was the
defense of a slave girl, Nancy, in 1841, in the Supreme
Court of Illinois, who, through him, was made free. At
this time Mr. Lincoln was only thirty-two years of age.
The case excited great interest, and the decision forever
settled the few traces of slavery7 which had then existed
in southern Illinois.

Another case was the Central Illinois Railroad Com-
pany against McLean County, Illinois, tried at Bloom-
ington. This case was decided in favor of the railroad.
Mr. Lincoln received from the company a fee of $5,000,
the largest fee he ever received.

Another suit in which he was employed was the
McCormick Reaper Patent case, tried in 1857, in Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. Here Mr. Lincoln first met the Honor-
able Edwin M. Stanton, who was employed on the same
side of the case. Mr. Stanton treated Mr. Lincoln with
great disrespect. Mr. Lincoln overheard him, in an
adjoining room, ask, "Where did that long-armed crea-
ture come from, and what can he do in this case?" He
also declared if "that giraffe" was permitted to appear
in the case he would throw up his brief and leave it.
He further referred to Lincoln as a "long, lank creature

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

from Illinois, wearing a dirty linen duster for a coat,
the back of which the perspiration had splotched
with stains that resembled the map of a continent."'
As there were a number of attorneys on both sides, it
was ordered that only two speeches be made on each
side. This order would exclude either Lincoln or Stan-
ton, as there were three attorneys on that side of the
case. At Lincoln's suggestion, Stanton quickly decided
to speak. Mr. Lincoln was greatly disappointed, for he
had made much preparation. Four years later, Mr.
Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United
States, and he chose Mr. Stanton as a member of his
cabinet, and they were close friends during the Civil
War.

The most celebrated case in which Mr. Lincoln fig-
ured was the Armstrong case, in 1858. All the Lincoln
biographers refer to it, and as I have some unpublished
facts in reference to it and some of the parties con-
nected with the case, it is here presented at length.

There was near New Salem a band of young men
known as the "Clary Grove Boys." The special tic
that united them was physical courage and strength.
Every newcomer of any great strength had to be tested.
So Lincoln was required to go through the ordeal of a
wrestling match. Seeing that he could not be easily
floored, Jack Armstrong, their champion, was chosen
to lay Lincoln on his back. Many gathered to witness
the contest, and a number of bets were made. After
quite a spirited engagement, Lincoln won, and was
invited to become one of the company. Jack Armstrong
declared, "Abe Lincoln is the best man that ever broke
into the settlement," and he became a lifelong, warm
friend of Lincoln.

Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

Some time after the scuffle, Lincoln found a home,
for a time, with Jack Armstrong, where he read and
studied. Armstrong was a farmer, and a poor man,
but he saw genius struggling in the young student, and
welcomed him to his cabin home and rough fare. Mrs.
Armstrong, a most excellent woman, learned to respect
Mr. Lincoln, and befriended him in many ways.

About twenty years after Lincoln's stay in the Arm-
strong home, William D. Armstrong, commonly called
"Duff," a son of Jack and Hannah Armstrong, became
involved in a difficulty. He was somewhat wild, and
was often in bad company. One night, in August, 1857,
in company with a wild crowd, lie went to a camp-
meeting, where a row ensued, in which a man named
Metzker received injuries from which he died three days
later. Young Armstrong and another young man.
Norris, Avere arrested, charged with murder, and put
in jail. The community was greatly stirred over the
matter and demanded the speedy punishment of the
prisoners. A short time after "Duff" was placed in jail,
his father, Jack Armstrong, died, and his last request
was for his wife to sell everything she had to clear
"Duff." Mrs. xA.rmstrong engaged two lawyers at
Havana, Illinois, and Lincoln, hearing of her troubles,
wrote her the following letter:

"Springfield, Ohio, September 18, .

"Dear Mrs. Armstrong : — I have just heard of your deep
affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can
hardly believe that he can be guilty of the crime alleged
against him. It does not seem possible. I am anxious
that he should have a fair trial, at any rate; and gratitude
for your long-continued kindness to me in adverse circum-
stances prompts me to offer my humble services gratui-
tously in his behalf. It will afford me an opportunity to

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

requite, in a small degree, the favors I received at your
hand, and that of your lamented husband, when your roof
afforded me grateful shelter without money and without,
price. Yours truly,

"Abraham Lincoln."

The first act was to secure a postponement and a
change in place of trial. The trial was held at Beards-
town, in May, 1858, only two years before Mr. Lincoln
was nominated for President of the United States, and
the case was watched with great interest. Norris had
already been convicted and sent to the penitentiary.

"When the trial was called the prisoner was pale and
emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature.
He was accompanied by his half-hoping, half-despairing
mother, whose only hope was in a mother's belief of her
son's innocence, in the justice of the God she worshiped,
and in the noble counsel, who, without hope of fee or
reward upon earth, had undertaken the case."

A statement of the trial is here taken, with a few
changes, from Barrett's excellent "Life of Lincoln" :

"Mr. Lincoln sat quietly by while the large auditory-
looked on him as though wondering what he could say in
defense of one whose guilt they regarded as certain. The
examination of the witnesses for the State was begun, and
a well-arranged mass of evidence, circumstantial and posi-
tive, was introduced, which seemed to impale the prisoner
beyond the possibility of extrication. The strongest evi-
dence was that of a man who belonged to the rough ele-
ment, who swore that at eleven o'clock at night he saw
Armstrong strike the deceased on the head, that the moon
was shining brightly, and was nearly full, and that its
position in the sky was just about that of the sun at ten
o'clock in the morning, and that by it he saw Armstrong
give the mortal blow.

"The counsel for the defense propounded but few ques-
tions, and those of a character which excited no uneasiness

Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

on the part of the prosecutor — merely, in most cases, re-
quiring the main witness to be definite as to time and
place.

"When the evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lin-
coln introduced a few witnesses to remove some erroneous
impressions in regard to the previous character of his
client, who, though somewhat rowdyish, had never been
known to commit a vicious act; and to show that a greater
degree of ill feeling existed between the accuser and the
accused than the accused and the deceased.

"The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, and
his opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose,
while a deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and in
a clear, but moderate tone, began his argument. Slowly
and carefully he reviewed the testimony, pointing out the
hitherto unobserved discrepancies in the statements of the
principal witness. That which had seemed plain and
plausible, he made to appear as a serpent's path. The
witness had stated that the affair took place at a certain
hour in the evening, and that, by the aid of the brightly
shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict the death blow."

At this point Mr. Lincoln produced an almanac,
which showed that at the time referred to by the witness
there was no moon at all, and showed it to the jury.
He then said that the principal witness had testified to
what was absolutely false, and declared his whole story
a fabrication. Lincoln had told no one of his discovery,
so that it produced quite a sensation.

"An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been
wrought in the minds of the auditors, and the verdict of
'not guilty' was at the end of every tongue. But the advo-
cate was not content with this intellectual achievement.
His whole being had for months been bound up in this
work of gratitude and mercy, and, as the lava of the over-
charged crater bursts from its imprisonment, so great
thoughts and burning words leaped from the soul of the
eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjurer, so

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

horrid and ghastly that the accuser could sit under it no
longer, but reeled and staggered from the court-room, while
the audience fancied they could see the brand upon his
brow. Then, in words of thrilling pathos, Lincoln appealed
to the jurors, as fathers of sons who might become father-
less, and as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to
yield to no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice,
but to do his client justice. As he alluded to the debt of
gratitude he owed the boy's dead father and his living
widowed mother, tears were seen to fall from many eyes
unused to weep. It was near night when he concluded by
saying that if justice was done, — as he believed it would
be, — before the sun should set it would shine upon his
client a free man.

"The jury retired, and the court adjourned for the day.
Half an hour had not elapsed when a messenger announced
that the jury had returned to their seats. All repaired
immediately to the court-house, and while the prisoner was
being brought from the jail, the court-room was filled to
overflowing with citizens of the town. When the prisoner
and his mother entered, silence reigned as completely as
though the house were empty. The foreman of the jury,
in answer to the usual inquiry from the court, delivered
the verdict of 'Not guilty.'

"The widow dropped into the arms of her son, who lifted
her up, and told her to look upon him as before, free and
innocent. Then with the words, 'Where is Mr. Lincoln?'
he rushed across the room, and grasped the hand of his
deliverer, while his heart was too full for utterance. Lin-
coln turned his eyes toward the west, where the sun still
lingered in view, and then, turning to the youth, said, 'It
is not yet sundown, and you are free.' An eye-witness
says: '1 confess that my cheeks were not wholly unwet
by tears as I turned from the affecting scene. As I cast
a glance behind, I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the divine
injunction, by comforting the widowed and the fatherless.' "'

A story has been reported that the introduction of an
almanac in the Armstrong trial was a piece of trickery
on Lincoln's part; that an almanac of 1853 was used

Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

with all the figure 3's changed to 7's. This was not
necessary, for the almanac of 1857 answered the pur-
pose, and, besides, Mr. Lincoln was not a dishonest
lawyer.

Others have claimed that no almanac was used at all
in the trial. George Cary Eggleston, a noted author,
is reported as putting a discount on it, and intimates
that the story arose from an incident connected with a
trial in the early 'fifties at Vevay, Indiana, witnessed
by himself and his brother Edward, the author of the
"Hoosier Schoolmaster," and other popular novels. He
says his brother, in writing the novel, entitled "The
Graysons," exercised the novelist's privilege, and attrib-
uted this clever trick to Abraham Lincoln in the days
of his obscurity.

Part First of Honorable J. H. Barrett's "Life of
Lincoln" was prepared for the press in June, 1860, just
after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the presidency, and
only two years after the Armstrong trial, and there the
trial is mentioned in full, with the almanac incident.
How does the George Gary Eggleston account jibe with
these facts? His brother Edward simply stated an his-
torical fact in attributing the almanac incident to Lin-
coln, and it was not the exercise of a novelist's fancy.

In order to secure additional facts in the Armstrong
case, I recently wrote to the postmaster at Havana,
Illinois, for the names of the lawyers, if yet living, who
were associated with Mr. Lincoln in the case. The
following letter was received, winch is here given for its
historic value :

"Havana, Illinois, August 22, 1908.
"Rev. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir: — Your letter directed to
the postmaster of this place, dated August 18, 1908, was

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

handed to me by the postmaster, Mr. Oscar Harpham, and
he requested me to answer your letter.

"You ask for the names of the lawyers in Havana, who,
in connection with Abraham Lincoln, defended Duff Arm-
strong in the Circuit Court of Cass County, Illinois, held
in Beardstown, in 1858. In answer, I will state that the
undersigned, Lyman Lacey, Sr., was one of the two lawyers
who was employed to defend said Armstrong. Our firm
name was Walker and Lacey, and we were practicing law
in Havana, Mason County, Illinois, at the time in partner-
ship, and had been so engaged at the time of the trial
since 1856. Mr. Walker's given name was William. In
1865, Mr. William Walker removed to Lexington, State of
Missouri, where he practiced law, and was county judge
part of the time, and, a few years ago, died.

"I am the only attorney who practiced and was employed
to defend Armstrong, yet alive. I am in the practice of
law now, and am in good health, and on the 9th day of
May last was seventy-six years old. Was about twenty-six
years old at the time of trial of the Armstrong case in
Beardstown, and my partner, some years older than myself,
was the senior member of our firm. He attended the trial
in Beardstown with Lincoln. I was not present, but stayed
at home in the office in Havana.

"Mason and Cass counties join, and the crime of killing
Metzker, for which Armstrong was indicted, took place in
Mason County, and* the indictment against Armstrong was
found in this county, and a change of venue was taken to
Cass County, which was in the same judicial district.

"I was well acquainted with Hannah Armstrong, mother
of "Duff," with whom Lincoln had boarded in Menard
County, which also joins Mason, when he was a young man,
and before he was a lawyer, That was the reason Lincoln
would not charge anything for defending her son. Our
firm, Walker and Lacey, did not charge her anything for
our services. "Duff" could not pay. His mother employed
us and Lincoln. Lincoln and our firm consulted together
about the defense, and Walker assisted at the trial.

"I would be glad to give you any information in regard
to the trial and the parties in the Armstrong case. It was

Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

quite celebrated, and things have been told that were not
true.

"In regard to myself, in 1873 I was elected judge of the
Circuit Court, and elected three times afterwards, and
served in all twenty-four years. By appointment of the
Supreme Court of this State, I served twenty years on the
Appellate Court bench. I retired from the bench in 1897.
"Yours very truly,

"Lyman Lacey, Sr."

After receiving the above letter, I wrote to Judge
Lacy for additional information, and, in reply, received
another letter containing interesting data, which here
follows :

"Havana, Illinois, September 1, 1908.

"Rev. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir: — Your letter of August
26th, was duly received, and contents noted. I wish to
state to you that William Duff Armstrong was duly and
jointly indicted with James H. Norris in the Circuit Court
of Mason County, Illinois, for the murder of Metzker,
October 3, 1857. Hugh Fullerton, of Mason County, was
State's attorney and prosecutor, and is long since deceased.
Norris was unable to employ an attorney, not having the
necessary means. According to the laws of Illinois, in
such case the circuit judge appoints an attorney at law to
defend him, and the attorney is obliged to defend the
prisoner without compensation. Accordingly the court
appointed William Walker, my law partner, to defend
Norris, which he did. Norris was tried before a jury of
twelve men in Mason County, and said jury, on the 5th of
November, convicted him of manslaughter, and fixed the
time he should serve in the penitentiary as eight years,
and the judge sentenced him to serve that time in the
penitentiary at hard labor, which he did, less time gained
by good behavior.

"William Duff Armstrong was granted a change of venue,
November 5, 1857, to Cass County, Illinois, and was tried
the next spring. William Walker and myself were em-
ployed by Hannah Armstrong and Duff to defend him in

■Jl

Footprint* of Abraham Lincoln

Cass County, Illinois. I cannot state for certain whether
Aunt Hannah' first sought the advice and help of Lincoln,
or whether Lincoln first volunteered his services, but my
recollection is that she first sought his aid. I understood
after the trial of Duff that Mr. Lincoln told her he would
make no charge for his services, because, he told her,
she had spent more time, while he boarded with her, in
darning his stockings and mending his clothes, than he
had in defending her son in the trial, and as she never
charged him anything, he would not charge her for his
services.

"You know that 'Old Abe,' as he was called, was a humor-
ous kind of a man. At one time when I was in Beardstown,
at a term of court, looking after the Armstrong case, Lin-
coln was also there, and the judge, who had to come dcwn
on a steamboat from Pekin on the Illinois River, was long
delayed. Lincoln and myself were at the same hotel in
Beardstown, waiting for the judge, when Lincoln became
very uneasy, and walked backward and forward, slowly,
at the door of the hotel, when finally he spelled out —
't-e-j-u-s, t-e-j-u-s,' pronouncing the word as spelled twice.

"In regard to the almanac question, there was a witness
who testified that after eleven o'clock, when the moon was
shining brightly, he saw Duff Armstrong strike Metzker
with a club. Lincoln and my partner, William Walker,
introduced the almanac of 1857, showing that the moon
set before eleven o'clock, which proved that the witness
was swearing to a falsehood as regarded the shining of the
moon. Noiw some one started the story that the almanac
introduced was not one of the date of 1857, but of a former
date showing the setting of the moon before eleven o'clock.
. . . My partner, Walker, would have told me about it if
such a trick had been performed at the trial, but he never
did. Some years ago, I examined an almanac of 1857,
which showed the setting of the moon was before eleven
o'clock, and that it was the right almanac to introduce.
A year or two before Duff Armstrong died, I had a con-
versation with him in Mason City, Mason County, Illinois,
and he said there was no truth in the story that an almanac
of a different date than 1857 was introduced. The above

Lincoln and the Armstrong Case

charge is untrue, and is what I referred to in my former
letter. . . .

"I practiced law with Herndon in the 'fifties and the
'sixties, and he often talked to me about Lincoln, whom he
liked very much, and afterward wrote his history. [Hern-
don was Lincoln's law partner twenty years.]

"At the time of the Armstrong trial, Lincoln was not
looked upon as the great man he is to-day, only that he was
a very good and successful lawyer. No one ever dreamed
that he would be President. He was a man of great com-
mon sense, and an amusing story-teller. He knew how to
please the common people, and everybody liked him per-
sonally. Yours truly,

"Lyman Lacet, Sr."

Miss Ida M. Tarbell says, in McClure's Magazine,
that Lincoln told the jury in the Armstrong case that
he was not there as a hired attorney, but to discharge
a debt of gratitude. Duff Armstrong said : "Uncle
Abe did his best talking when he told the jury what true
friends my father and mother had been to him in the
early days. He told how he used to go out to Jack
Armstrong's and stay for days; how kind mother was
to him; and how, many a time, he had rocked me to
sleep in the old cradle.''

J. M. Hobson, now in his eighty-first year, and who,
for many years, has resided in Winterset, Iowa, recently
informed me that he was acquainted with "Aunt Han-
nah." She was married the second time to Samuel
Wilcox. She died in Winterset, August 15, 1890, at
the age of seventy-nine.

Mr. Hobson further said: "The son that Lincoln
took an interest in was here fifteen or sixteen years
ago. His name was William, but they called him
"Duffy." We had a revival meeting at our church, and
he attended. I took an interest in him, and tried to

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

get him to be a Christian. He did not make a start
then, and I do not know whether he did later or not."'

Duff Armstrong was a soldier in the Civil War, and
died a widower, in 1899, at his daughter's, near Easton,
Mason County, Illinois.

"Aunt Hannah" has a number of relatives in Winter-
set, Iowa, among them Mrs. Martha McDonald, her
step-daughter and daughter-in-law. She was first mar-
ried to Robert, a son of "Aunt Hannah." He died sev-
eral years ago. I am indebted to Mrs. McDonald,
through J. M. Hobson, for the excellent picture of
"Aunt Hannah" in this book, also for the picture of
"Duff," taken late in life, as an every-day farmer. He
was Mrs. McDonald's step-brother and brother-in-law.

CHAPTER VII.
Lincoln's Temperance Principles

Promise Made to His Mother — Writes a Temperance Article
Before Leaving Indiana — Mr. Wood and Mr. Farmer — Did
Lincoln Sell Whisky? — His Great Temperance Address — Testi-
mony of Associates — Moses Martin's Letter — The Internal
Revenue Bill.

It is well known that Abraham Lincoln was strictly
a temperance man. His early training was on that line.
In his maturer years, while a member of Congress,
when urged by an associate to drink on a certain occa-
sion, he said, "I promised my precious mother only a
few days before she died that I would never use any-
thing intoxicating as a beverage, and I consider that
promise as binding to-day as it was on the day I made
it."

Among his first literary efforts, at his boyhood home
in Indiana, was to write an article on temperance. Wil-
liam Wood, living near by, was Lincoln's chief adviser
in many things. He took a political and a temperance
paper, and Lincoln read them thoroughly. He expressed
a desire to try his hand at writing an article on temper-
ance. Mr. Wood encouraged him, and the article was
written. Aaron Farmer, a noted minister of the United
Brethren Church, often stopped with Mr. Wood, who
was a zealous and devoted member of the same church.
Mr. Herndon and other Lincoln biographers are mis-
taken in saying that Aaron Farmer was a minister of
the Baptist Church. Henry Brooner told me that he
joined the United Brethren Church at a grove meeting

Footprints of Abraham, Lincoln

held in that part of the country by Aaron Farmer, in
the fall of 1827.

Lincoln's temperance article was shown Mr. Farmer
by Mr. Wood, and he was so well pleased with it that
he sent it to an Ohio paper, in which it was published.
Lincoln, at this time, was seventeen or eighteen years
old. I was acquainted with James, Andrew, Robert,
and Charles, aged sons of William Wood, all of whom
knew Lincoln. They have all passed away. In the year
1888, I officiated at the funeral of Mrs. Nancy Arm-
strong, one of Mr. Wood's daughters, at her home,
which was the old home of her father, where Lincoln
was always a welcome visitor. William L. Wood, a
grandson of Lincoln's adviser, now living at Dale, and
whom I have known for many years, says his grand-
father was a temperance worker.

Mr. Farmer had a literary turn of mind, and pub-
lished a paper called Zion's Advocate, at Salem, Indi-
ana, in 1829, but this was about two years after Lin-
coln's temperance article was written. The United
Brethren Church organ, the Religious Telescope, now
published at Dayton, Ohio, was first published at Circle-
ville, Ohio, in 1834, but this was still later. Query:
In what paper in Ohio was Lincoln's temperance article
printed? Mr. Farmer died March 1, 1839, while serv-
ing as presiding elder of the Indianapolis District.
William Wood, Lincoln's old friend and adviser, died
at Dale, Spencer County, Indiana, December 28, 1867,
at the age of eighty-three.

Mr. Lincoln has been charged with selling whisky
at New Salem, Illinois. Let us examine the facts and
his own statement. In 1833, he and Mr. Berry bought
out three groceries in New Salem. Berry was a driuk-

Lincoln's Temperance Principles

ing man and not a suitable partner for Lincoln. At
that time grocery stores usually kept whisky on sale, so
the firm had quite a stock of whisky on hand, along
with other commodities. Drinking was common then.
Even some ministers of the gospel would take their
"dram." It appears that Lincoln trusted Berry to run
the business. It is doubtful if Lincoln himself sold
whisky, although his name was connected with the firm.
The firm failed. Berry died, leaving Lincoln the debts
to pay.

Mr. Douglas, in his debates with Lincoln, twitted
him as having been a "grocery keeper" and selling
whisky. In replying, Lincoln jokingly said Mr. Doug-
las was one of his best customers, and said he had left
his side of the counter, while Douglas stuck to his side
as tenaciously as ever. When Lincoln laid aside his
jokes he declared that he never sold whisky in his life.
(See Chapter IX.)

Mr. Lincoln often "preached" what he called his
"sermon to boys," as follows : "Don't drink, don't
gamble, don't smoke, don't lie, don't cheat. Love your
fellow-men, love God, love truth, love virtue, and be
happy."

On the 22d of February, 1842, he made a strong
address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society,
in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illi-
nois, in which he said: "Whether or not the world
would be vastly benefited by a total and final banish-
ment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not
now an open question. Three-fourths of mankind con-
fess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe,
all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts."

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Leonard Swett, who, for eleven years was associated
with Lincoln in law in the Eighth Judicial District of
Illinois, said, "Lincoln never tasted liquor, never
chewed tobacco or smoked."

The late Philip Clark, of Mattoon, Illinois, an old-
time friend of Lincoln, is reported to have said : "We
were together one night in a country neighborhood,
when some one proposed that we all go to church, close
by, to hear the Rev. John Berry preach a temperance
sermon. After listening intently, Abe remarked to me
that that subject would some time be one of the greatest
in this country."

In the year 1847, Lincoln made a number of temper-
ance addresses and circulated a total abstinence pledge,
urging persons to sign it. Among those who signed
the pledge presented by Mr. Lincoln were Moses Martin
and Cleopas Breckenridge, who are still living. Recently
I wrote to Mr. Martin, asking him to furnish for this
book a statement concerning his recollections of Lincoln
and his temperance speech. He promptly answered, as
follows :

"Edinburg, Illinois, January 14, 1909.
"Mr. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir: — I heard Abraham Lincoln
lecture on temperance in 1847, at the South Fork school-
house. He came out from Springfield. He had gotten up
a pledge. It was called the Washingtonian pledge. He
made a very forcible lecture, the first temperance lecture
I ever heard, and the first one ever delivered in our neigh-
borhood. It was in the grove, and a large crowd came out
to hear the lecture. Lincoln asked if any one had anything
to say, for it or against it, while he circulated the pledge,
he would hear from them. My old friend, Preston Breck
enridge, got up and made a very forcible talk. He signed
the pledge, and all his children. Cleopas was his son.
Nearly every one there signed it. Preston went out lectur-

Lincoln's Temperance Principles

ing. I usually went with him and circulated the pledge
copied after Abraham Lincoln's pledge. It read as follows:
'Whereas, the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is
productive of pauperism, degradation, and crime, and
believing it is our duty to discourage that which produces
more evil than good; we, therefore, pledge ourselves to
abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage.'
When I signed Lincoln's pledge I was about nineteen years
old. I am now eighty years old.

"Moses Martin. "

At my request, Mr. Martin kindly sent his picture
for this book. Cleopas Breckenridge, who is referred
to in Mr. Martin's letter, is living, in his seventy-third
year, at Custer, Illinois. As he has furnished a state-
ment for other publications, he writes that he prefers
not to furnish it again. It may be said, however, that
he was ten years old when Lincoln, by permission, wrote
his name under the pledge, then placing his hand on
the little boy's head, said, "Now, sonny, you keep that
pledge, and it will be the best act of your life." In his
long life, subject to many temptations, Mr. Brecken-
ridge has faithfully kept his pledge made at Mr. Lin-
coln's temperance meeting.

On the 29th of September, 1863, in response to an
address from the Sons of Temperance in Washington,
President Lincoln said:

"If I were better known than I am, you would not need
to be told that, in the advocacy of the cause of temperance
you have a friend and a sympathizer in me. When I was
a young man — long ago — before the Sons of Temperance
as an organization had an existence, I, in a humble way,
made temperance speeches, and I think I may say that to
this day I have never, by my example, belied what I then
said. ... I think the reasonable men of the world have
long since agreed that intemperance is one of the greatest,

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

if not the very greatest, of all evils among mankind. This
is not a matter of dispute, I believe. That the disease
exists, and that it is a very great one, is agreed upon by
all. The mode of cure is one about which there may be
differences of opinion."

It is true that President Lincoln, during the awful
pressure of the Civil War, signed the Internal Revenue
Bill, (H. R., No. 312,) to raise money from various
sources to support the Government, among which was
the licensing of retail dealers in intoxicating liquors.
This bill was warmly discussed. Some years ago, I
read these discussions in the "Congressional Record,"
of May 27, 1862. Senators Wilson, Pomeroy, Harris,
and Wilmot opposed the licensing of the sale of intoxi-
cants in the strongest manner. Mr. Lincoln threatened
to veto the bill, but, as a war measure, and, acting under
dire necessity, with the assurance that the bill would be
repealed when the war was over, he reluctantly signed
the bill, July 1, 1862. Up to this time, however, the
bill has never been repealed. There have been some
changes made, among which the word "license" was
changed to "special tax," but the import is practically
the same.

CHAPTER VIII.
Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

Major J. B. Merwin and Abraham Lincoln — They Together Can-
vass Illinois for State Prohibition in 1854-55 — Lincoln's Argu-
ments Against the Saloon — Facts Omitted by Lincoln's
Biographers — President Lincoln, Generals Scott and Butler
Recommend Merwin's Temperance Work in the Army — The
President Sends Merwin on a Mission to New York the Day
of the Assassination — Proposition for Freedmen to Dig Pan-
ama Canal — Lincoln's Last Words to Merwin — Merwin's Char-
acteristic Address at Lincoln's Tomb — -"Lincoln, the Christian
Statesman" — Merwin Living at Middlefield, Connecticut.

It will, no doubt, be of interest to here introduce a
man who, perhaps, knew Mr. Lincoln as well as any
man now living. It is Major J. B. Merwin, of Middle-
field, Connecticut, who is now eighty years old. He is
a noted educator and lecturer. He formerly resided in
St. Louis, Missouri, and was the founder of "The
American Journal of Education," in that city in 1867.
Since that time he has written much and lectured
widely on educational and literary subjects.

Learning of his associations with Mr. Lincoln, that
they together campaigned the State of Illinois for State
prohibition in 1854-55, I wrote Mr. Merwin for some
items relative to his acquaintance and associations with
the great emancipator. In his reply, Mr. Merwin said:

"I mail you a very brief resume of my connection with
Mr. Lincoln from 1854 on, up to the day he was assassin-
ated. This will answer your query and request, I think,
fully. Of course the address made at the tomb of the
great, dear man, on May 26, 1904, was greatly abridged for
lack of space, but many essential points you will be able
to gather from what I send you. And I am glad to do this,
for nearly all his biographers , ignore both his prohibition
and bis religious work and character."

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

From what Mr. Merwin furnished, as stated in his
letter, the following facts are here presented :

Mr. Merwin, then a young man, was a temperance
lecturer in Connecticut, in 1851, during which year he
and Neal Dow both addressed the legislature in behalf
of State prohibition. A resident of Springfield, Illinois,
then visiting in Hartford, being interested in the ques-
tion, gained admittance to this legislative session, and
was much pleased with Mr. Merwin's presentation of
the subject. He afterward took it upon himself to
invite Mr. Merwin to visit Springfield and deliver the
same address before the Illinois Legislature. The invi-
tation was accepted, and the following winter Mr.
Merwin began a temperance campaign in Illinois. His
first address was made at the capital. At this time the
legislature was considering the submission of the pro-
hibition question to the people, and as the question met
with great opposition from the leaders of the two politi-
cal parties, who feared to jeopardize the liquor interests,
the speaker from the East was not permitted to address
the legislature as a body, and spoke instead in the
representative hall.

It was at this meeting that he first met Lincoln, who
was immediately touched by the young speaker's words
and enthusiastically accepted his message. Mr. Lincoln
invited Mr. Merwin home with him that night, but,
knowing nothing of the character of the man, Mr.
Merwin asked the advice of a friend, who said, "Most
certainly, if Mr. Lincoln invites you, go." Mr. Merwin
says : "We were barely inside his door, and even before
he asked me to be seated, he wanted to know if I had
a copy of the Maine law with me. I had, and we spent
until four o'clock in the morning discussing its fea-

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

tures." The matter of a prohibition canvass was out-
lined, and Mr. Lincoln volunteered to put the whole
matter before Eichard Yates, afterwards Illinois' war
governor, but who was then Grand Worthy Patriarch of
the Sons of Temperance. Mr. Yates was quick to see
the strength of the new idea, and himself arranged the
first series of rallies where Lincoln and Merwin spoke.

The meeting at Jacksonville was presided over by
Eichard Yates. Among the places at which they spoke
were Bellville, Bloomington, Peoria, Edwardsville, and
Decatur. Mr. Lincoln's political friends were alarmed
for him because of his radicalism on the temperance
question, and made a combined effort to silence him,
but he continued in the fight.

Prohibition did not carry in its submission to the
people, but it is said that the votes of forty counties
were changed in favor of State prohibition.

After the campaign of 1854-55, Mr. Merwin's friend-
ship with Lincoln continued without a break up to the
latter's assassination. Soon after the commencement
of the war, Mr. Merwin's unceasing advocacy of the
great reform won him personal recognition, and it was
suggested by prominent military men that he should
be officially appointed, and be permitted the freedom
of the camps in the interests of personal temperance
work, need of which was widely evident. What Presi-
dent Lincoln and Generals Scott and Butler wrote on
the back of the recommendation, as endorsements, is
here given. Mr. Merwin has the original manuscript :

"If it be ascertained at the War Department that the
President has legal authority to make an appointment such
as is asked within, and Gen. Scott is of opinion it will be
available for good, then let it be done.

"July 17, 1861. A. Lincoln."

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

"I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to this army a
happy circumstance, and request all commanders to give
him free access to all our camps and posts, and also to
multiply occasions to enable him to address our officers
and men. Winfield Scott,

"July 24, 1861. Department of Virginia."

"The mission of Mr. Merwin will be of great benefit to
the troops, and I will furnish him with every facility to
address the troops under my command. I hope the Gen'l
commanding the army will give him such official position
as Mr. Merwin may desire to carry out his object.

"August 8, 1861. B. F. Butler, Maj-Gen. Com'd'g."

The testimonial to the warm appreciation of Mr.
Merwin's usefulness in the army as a temperance worker
is signed by Isaac 1ST. Arnold, 0. H. Browning, Charles
Sumner, Alexander W. Randall, W. A. Buckingham,
Richard Yates, James Harlan, Alexander Ramsey, A. B.
Palmer, John F. Potter, J. L. Scripps, Lyman Trum-
bull, Henry Wilson, J. R. Doolittle, Austin Blair,
Thomas Drammond, James W. Grimes, Samuel J.
Kirkwood, Timothy 0. Howe, David Wilmot, and more
than one hundred others. They comprise those of gov-
ernors, senators, congressmen, and postmasters.

In 1862, President Lincoln again wrote a special
order to facilitate his work at the front, as follows, the
original still being in Mr. Merwin's possession :

"Surgeon General will send Mr. Merwin wherever he
may think the public service may require.

"July 24, 1862. A. Lincoln."

Throughout the war Mr. Merwin was in close per-
sonal touch with the nation's executive, and had a
passport, given him by Mr. Lincoln, which admitted
him to the White House at any time, dav or night,

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

except during the session of the cabinet. On the day
of his assassination the President had Mr. Merwin to
dine with him, and that afternoon sent him on au
important mission to New York.

It will be a matter of interest to many to know that
Mr. Lincoln looked very favorably upon a proposal that
had been made for the excavation and completion of the
Panama Canal by means of the labor of the freedmen.
Those close to the President at the time were aware
of the fact that he favored the plan, and it was for the
purpose of securing the views of Horace Greeley, of the
New York Tribune, and other molders of public
thought, in regard to the plan, that he called Major
Merwin to the White House on the fatal Friday, April
14, 1865, the day that he was shot. After the Presi-
dent had explained this business to Mr. Merwin, perhaps
recalling again those stirring times ten years before,
when he had campaigned with him, he said, "After
reconstruction, the next great question will be the over-
throw of the liquor traffic."

That evening Mr. Merwin was on his way to New
York, and the following morning, as he stepped from
the train in that city, he heard the terrible news of the
assassination at Ford's Theater, the night before.

Mr. Merwin says that Mr. Lincoln talked freely with
him on the overthrow of the liquor traffic, and it is his
strong conviction that if his life had been spared, even
a decade, he would have emphasized his lifelong devo-
tion to the temperance cause with an open and decisive
championship of State and National prohibition. The
slavery issue had come unforeseen into his life and
swept him heart and soul into the very vortex of that
terrific struggle. As he often expressed, it, "there must

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

be one war at a time," and the one that called him first
was not of his own choosing in point of order.

The abridged address on "Lincoln as a Prohibition-
ist," delivered by Major Merwin at the Lincoln Monu-
ment, at Springfield, Illinois, May 26, 1904, which he
furnished for this book, is here given. It was printed
in the New Voice, Chicago, June 16, 1904, to which I
am indebted for a number of the foregoing items, some
of which were marked by Major Merwin with a blue
pencil.

After a brief introduction by Mr. Alonzo Wilson,
chairman of the State Prohibition Committee, Mr. Mer-
win, standing on one of the steps of the stairway of the
monument, with a beautiful flag covering a part of the
balustrade, said :

"We stand to-day in the heart of the continent, midway
between the two oceans, within the shadow of the monu-
ment of the man who made more history — who made
greater history than any other person, than all other per-
sons who lived in the nineteenth century! A leader of the
people, who was great in their greatness, who carried their
burdens, who, with their help, achieved a name and a fame
unparalleled in human history. He broke the shackles of
lour millions of slaves. He saved to the world this form
cf government, which gives to all our people the oppor-
tunity to walk, if they will, down the corridors of time,
arm in arm with the great of all ages, sheltered and in-
spired by the flag which has become the symbol of hope
and of freedom to all the world!

"In God's good providence, I came to know him — here in
his humble home in Springfield, in 1854, and before he had
come to be the hero, beloved, glorified, known and loved
by all who love liberty. It was in the autumn of 1854.
1 was a young man full of all the enthusiasm of those first
Neal Dow triumphs in New England. Accepting the invi-
tation of friends, I came to Illinois, where the campaign

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

for State prohibition was getting under way. I reached
Springfield, and one night had the privilege of speaking in
the old State House, where, with legislators and towns-
people, I found an appreciative audience.

"After my address, there were calls of 'Lincoln! Lincoln!
Lincoln!' and turning, I saw, perhaps, the most singular
specimen of a human being rising slowly, and unfolding
his long arms and his long legs, exactly like the blades of
a jack-knife. His hair was uncombed, his coat sleeves were
inches shorter than his shirt sleeves, his trousers did not
reach to his socks. First I thought there was some plan
to perpetrate a 'joke' on the meeting, but in one minute,
after the first accents of the pathetic voice were heard, the
crowd hushed to a stillness as profound as if Lincoln were
the only person present, and then this simple, uncouth
man gave to the hushed crowd such a definition of law, its
design and mission, its object and power, such as few
present had ever known or dreamed. Among the points
he made were the following:

"Mr. Lincoln asked, 'Is not the law of self-protection the
first law of nature; the first primary law of civilized
society?' 'Law,' he declared, 'is for the protection, con-
servation, and extension of right things, of right conduct;
not for the protection of evil and wrong-doing.'

" 'The State must, in its legislative action, recognize in
the law enacted this principle — it must make sure and
secure these endeavors to establish, protect, and extend
right conditions, right conduct, righteousness. These con-
ditions will be secured and preserved, not by indifference,
not by a toleration of evils, not by attempting to throw
around any evil the shield of law; never by any attempt
to license the evil.'

" 'This sentiment of right conduct for the protection of
home, of state, of church, of individuals must be taken up
and embodied in legislation, and thus become a positive
factor, active in the state. This is the first and most
important function in the legislation of the modern state.'
Proceeding, Mr. Lincoln said: 'This saves the whole, and
not a part, with a high, true conservatism through the
united action of all, by all, for all. The prohibition of the

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

liquor traffic, except for medical and mechanical purposes,
thus becomes the new evangel for the safety and redemp-
tion of the people from the social, political, and moral
curse of the saloon, and its inevitable evil consequences of
drunkenness.'

"Lincoln studied every moral and political issue in this
light and from this standpoint, and, as a result of this
practice, he studied the opposite side of every question in
dispute, and hence he was never surprised by the seeming
strength of his opponents, for he saw at once the moral
and legal weakness of wrong and untenable positions
assumed. This it is that throws a flood of light on his
ready and unanswerable repartee by story and statement.
In fact, we have seen, often, that after his statement of a
proposition it needed no argument.

"Honorable Elihu B. Washburn, Lincoln's closest friend,
wrote before he died that 'when the whole truth is dis-
closed of Mr. Lincoln's life during the years of 1854-55, it
will throw a flood of new light on the character of Mr.
Lincoln, and will add new luster to his greatness and his
patriotism.'

"Mr. Lincoln had, as is well known, made up his mind
to retire from the political arena. He was annoyed, yea,
more, he was disgusted with the low plane on which the
politicians, mere politicians, not statesmen, were trying to
conduct the affairs of the nation.

"Mr. Lincoln was feeling his way up and out of the
gloom, despondency, and melancholy which had to so great
an extent affected his life. There came to him a new light,
a new revelation of destiny in those still creative, or rather
recreative days, and it is this phase of things to which Mr.
Washburn refers in the above lines.

"It is a well-known fact that Mr. Lincoln hesitated to
show his strength of conscience, as he did his wealth of
goodness, lest it be counted as ostentation. He said often
in 1854-55, 'The saloon and the liquor traffic have defend-
ers— but no defense!' With him men were neither great
nor small — they were right or wrong. He knew no fear
except the fear of doing wrong. His expressions and con-
duct on this question of the prohibition of the liquor traffic

THE LIXCOLN-BROONER GUN,

Owned jointly by Abraham Lincoln and Henry Brooner in Indiana.

Now owned by John E. Burton, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

RUTH JENNINGS HUFF,

Daughter of Josiah Crawford, for whom
Lincoln often labored as hired hand
in Indiana.

DAVID TURNHAM AND WIPE.
Mr. Turnham, as Countable, loaned Lincoln the Revised Statutes of
Indiana, the first law-book he ever studied.

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

and the saloon were so firmly anchored on his profound
convictions of right and wrong that they were immutable.

"In that memorable canvass, Mr. Lincoln and myself
spoke in Jacksonville, in Bloomington, in Decatur, in Dan-
ville, in Carlinville, in Peoria, and at many other points.

"The gist of Mr. Lincoln's argument was contained in
this fearless declaration:

" 'This legalized liquor traffic, as carried on in the saloons
and grogshops, is the tragedy of civilization. Good citizen-
ship demands and requires that what is right should not
only be made known, but be made prevalent; that what is
evil should not only be detected and defeated, but destroyed.
The saloon has proved itself to be the greatest foe, the
most blighting curse of our modern civilization, and this
is why I am a practical prohibitionist.

" 'We must not be satisfied until the public sentiment
of this State, and the individual conscience shall be in-
structed to look upon the saloon-keeper and the liquor-
seller, with all the license each can give him, as simply
and only a privileged malefactor — a criminal.'

"Mr. Lincoln used, in advocating the entire prohibition
of the liquor traffic, nearly the same language, and in many
instances the same illustrations that he used later on in
his arguments against slavery. At another place he said:

" 'The real issue in this controversy, the one pressing
upon every mind that gives the subject careful considera-
tion, is that legalizing the manufacture, sale, and use of
intoxicating liquors as a beverage is a wrong — as all his-
tory and every development of the traffic proves it to be — a
moral, social, and political wrong.'

"It should be stated distinctly, squarely, and fairly, and
repeated often, that Mr. Lincoln was a practical total absti-
nence man; wrote for it, worked for it, taught it, both by
precept and by example; and when, from a long and varied
experience, he found that the greed and selfishness of the
liquor-dealers and the saloon-keepers overleaped and dis-
regarded all barriers and every other restraint, and taught
by the lessons of experience that nothing short of the
entire prohibition of the traffic and the saloon would settle
the question, he became an earnest, unflinching prohibi-
tionist.

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

"It has been said by those most competent to judge, that
Mr. Lincoln surpassed all orators in eloquence, all diplo-
mats in wisdom, all statesmen in foresight, and this makes
him and his name a power not to be resisted as a political
prohibitionist.

"We do not say much about it, for it is not necessary,
but there were times and occasions when Mr. Lincoln came
to be, in his administration, greater than law — when his
wisdom was greater than the combined wisdom of all the
people. The people, the law-makers had never compre-
hended the conditions and the situation that confronted
him. He was as great as necessity, and our safety lay in
the fact that he was as just as he was great, and as wise
as he was just. Great in law, but greater in necessity.

"God be praised for the great gifts he showered upon
him; God be praised for the generous use he made of
them. In the radiance of God's light and in the sunshine
of his love from out the gates of pearl which were swung
inward to his entrance by those who waited to welcome him
thither, there opened to him that vast and bright eternity,
vivid with God's love. We could wish for a moment the
veil might" be parted and we, too, could have vision that
such labor shall be crowned with immortal rest. Hail,
brother, and farewell."

In a letter to me, of late date, Major Merwin writes :

"None of us can get too many views of the good and
great Lincoln, and the world grows better for all we
know, or can learn of him. ... I spoke in New Haven
last Sunday evening in one of the largest churches in the
old college town. The house was packed with Yale stu-
dents and others. The subject was, 'Lincoln, the Christian
Statesman,' emphasizing the religious phase of the man,
much to the surprise of many present. This was the real
source of his strength. He was larger than any or all so-
called 'denominations,' and yet a multitude find both com-
fort and strength in these various divisions, and Lincoln's
heart was glad it was so."

Lincoln as a Prohibitionist

It should have been stated, in connection with Mr.
Merwin's temperance record in the army, that General
Winfield Scott, after hearing several addresses made by
Mr. Merwin from President Lincoln's carriage, to the
regiments gathering in Washington, said to the Presi-
dent, "A man of such force and moral power to inspire
courage, patriotism, faith, and obedience among the
troops is worth more than a half-dozen regiments of raw
recruits."

As before stated, Mr. Merwin is now in his eightieth
year, and resides at Middlefield, Connecticut. In his
last letter to me, dated January 14, 1909, referring to
the above paragraph, he says, "I am not now equal to
6,000 men, but am able to tell the story of the plain,
great man, whose name is now, and ever will be a glory
on the nation's brow."

CHAPTER IX.
Lincoln and the Slavery Question

An Ancient Institution — The Evils of Slavery — Lincoln Always
Opposed to Slavery — Relic of "Cruel Slavery Days" — -Discus-
sions, Laws, and Compromises — The Missouri Compromise —
The Fugitive Slave Law— The Kansas-Nebraska Bill — Lincoln
Aroused — He Answers Douglas — R. L. McCord Names Lincoln
His Candidate for President — A New Political Party — "Bleed-
ing Kansas" — The Dred Scott Decision — "The Underground
Railroad" — The John Brown Raid — The Approaching Crisis.

It may be wondered what future generations will
think when they read the history of our country and
learn that within the memory of many of those who
now live this Government tolerated and protected that
"sum of all villainies" — human slavery. Slavery arose
at an early period in the world's history out of the acci-
dent of capture in war. As an institution it has existed
in many countries for ages. Unfortunately, in the first
settling of the United States, slavery was tolerated, and
allowed to spread as the country developed. This was
especially true of the Southern States.

The many attendant evils of slavery cannot here be
mentioned. Slaves were largely kept in ignorance. In
some States it was considered a crime, with heavy pen-
alties, for any white person to teach a colored person to
read or write.

The traffic in human beings, as it then existed, is
awful to think of. Husbands and wives, parents and
children, brothers and sisters were often sold and sep-
arated never to meet again. When the master died, his
negroes were sold to the highest bidder, just like other
property.

Lincoln and the Slavery Question

Abraham Lincoln was always opposed to slavery.
When a young man he witnessed the cruelties of a slave
market in New Orleans, where men, women, and chil-
dren were sold like brutes. He then and there said, "If
1 ever have a chance to hit that institution, I will hit it
hard." In 1837, when he was only twenty-eight years
old, he heard a sermon preached by a noted minister, in
Illinois, on the interpretation of prophecy in its rela-
tion to the breaking down of civil and religious tyranny.
The sermon greatly impressed Mr. Lincoln, and he at
that time said to a friend, "Odd as it may seem, when
he described those changes and revolutions, I was deeply
impressed that I would be somehow strangely mixed up
with them."

Many slaveholders were otherwise good people, and
their slaves were well treated. Ministers of the gospel
and church-members held slaves. Some of the author's
maternal relatives were slaveholders. He remembers,
when a small boy, during "cruel slavery days," hearing
his grandfather relate a conversation he had with a slave
while on a late visit to his slaveholding brothers in
Kentucky. The slave, a young man, was entering some
complaint against slavery. Grandfather asked him, "Is
vour master kind to you?" "Yes, sir," answered the
slave. "Do you have plenty to eat and wear?" "Oh,
yes, sir." "Then why are you not satisfied ?" "Oh, Mr.
Todd, freedom, freedom."

I have a letter, dated June 2, 1861, written to my
grandfather by one of his Kentucky brothers. I remem-
ber seeing this great uncle in 1865, when he was visiting
in Indiana. He had administered on a brother's estate.
The letter contains the following : "You wrote to know
what I had done with the negroes. I sold them last

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

March, one year ago. William Hooker bought Dicey
and her youngest boy for $1,100. Franklin Todd, the
son of brother Peter, bought the oldest boy for $700. I
bought the second boy, the one born when you were here,
for $535." My great-uncle says, in the same letter,
that, on account of governmental affairs, "property" is
not bringing its full value.

The people of the North were generally opposed to
slavery, and great bitterness of feeling was engendered
between the Northern and Southern States. Among
the great leaders in the anti-slavery movement were
William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, Wendell Phil-
lips, John G. Whittier, Joshua R. Giddings, William
H. Seward, and Charles Sumner. The institution of
slavery had become a great power, and had interwoven
itself into the social, moral, religious, and political
fabrics of the country.

Whenever a territory sought admission into the
Union as a State, a great controversy arose as to whether
it should be admitted as a free or a slave State. The
halls of Congress resounded with the eloquence of great
statesmen on both sides of the question, because "there
were giants in those days." A good portion of the time
of Congress was taken in discussing some phase of the
slavery question. Bad temper was often exhibited, and
great interests were at stake. On some occasions Henry
Clay would propose a compromise, which being accepted,
would have a tendency to lull the storm which, sooner
or later, was to burst forth in all its fury. Anti-slavery,
abolition, and various organizations were formed.

In the North various opinions existed on the subject
of slavery. Some were opposed to its extension, but did
not wish to interfere with it where it already existed.

Lincoln and the Slavery Question

Others were more ultra, chief of whom was William
Lloyd Garrison, whose motto was to destroy slavery or
'destroy the Union. He finally came to the conclusion
that the Constitution of the United States favored slav-
ery, and declared it to be "a covenant with death and
an agreement with hell."

In 1820 the territory of Missouri sought admission
into the Union. The question as to whether it should
be admitted as a free or a slave State was so warmly
and violently discussed in Congress that many were
alarmed lest it would lead to the dissolution of the
Union. The territory was finally admitted as a slave
State, but on the express condition that slavery would
forever be excluded from all that part of the territory
of the United States lying north of 36 degrees and 30
minutes. This provision was known as "the Missouri
Compromise."

In 1850 the "Fugitive Slave Law" was passed by
Congress, which was, in part, to the effect that it was a
penal offense to render any accommodations, assistance,
or show any favors whatever to runaway slaves; also
that officers were empowered to compel citizens, in the
North as well as in the South, to assist in the capture
of such slaves.

As the Missouri Compromise forever excluded slavery
from the northwestern territories, the "forever" termi-
nated when Congress, in May, 1854, passed the cele-
brated Kansas-Nebraska Bill, introduced by Stephen A.
Douglas, the Democratic Senator from Illinois. Its
main provision was that each territory seeking admis-
sion into the Union might decide by vote of its inhabi-
tants whether it should be admitted as a free or a slave
State. This virtually repealed the Missouri Compro-

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

mise, which Douglas had declared "to be sacred," and
a law which "no human hand should destroy." This
act was considered such a flagrant violation of a trust,
breaking down all legal barriers to the possible spread
of slavery, that it aroused great indignation throughout
the North.

Mr. Lincoln, just prior to the passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, as already stated by Mr. Merwin in the
last chapter, had become inactive in politics, and had
given himself more fully to the practice of law. In
furnishing a short biography of himself for a friend, in
1859, he said, "I was losing interest in politics when
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me
again." He now saw the great danger of slavery enlarg-
ing its territory indefinitely, and was alarmed at the
serious nature of the situation.

When Mr. Douglas discovered the unpopularity of his
famous bill, he hastened to Springfield and other places
in Illinois, to explain matters. On the 4th of October,
1854, he spoke in the State House at the time of the
State Fair. It was expected that Lyman Trumbull, a
noted Whig politician of Illinois, would reply, but he
did not appear. Seeing the coast clear, Mr. Douglas
spread himself, and made a great speech. He was small
in stature and somewhat bombastic in his style of deliv-
ery. He was popularly known among his friends as the
"Little Giant." Mr. Lincoln had been urged to reply
to Mr. Douglas, and, after some persuasion, consented
to do so. That day he made his first great political
speech. It is stated that "all the smothered fires of his
broody days and nights and years burst forth in a power
and with an eloquence which even those who knew him

Lincoln and the Slavery Question

best had not so much as hoped for." Among other
things, he said:

"My distinguished friend, Douglas, says it is an insult
to the emigrants to Kansas and Nebraska to suppose that
they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur
over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle
the ear. It must be met and answered. I admit that the
emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern
himself, but I deny his right to govern any other person
icithout that person's consent:'

I now introduce to my readers one who heard Mr.
Douglas and Mr. Lincoln on that occasion, fifty-four
years ago. It is Kev. E. L. McCord, now in his seventy-
ninth year. He is an intelligent and highly-respected
citizen of Lake City, Iowa, and one of my most valued
parishioners. I shall let Mr. McCord speak for himself :

"I was then twenty-four years of age, and in my second
year as a student in the Illinois Congregational College at
Jacksonville, thirty miles west of Springfield. Some of
my college mates and I heard Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln
speak in the State House, in the fall of 1854. The people
were wearied with the lengthy speech of Judge Douglas.
When Mr. Lincoln began his reply, for about fifteen min-
utes he kept the audience in an uproar of laughter and
applause. Then he waded into the subject of 'free speech,
free soil, and free men,' much to the confusion of the man
who 'didn't care whether slavery was voted up or down/
During Mr. Lincoln's reply, Judge Douglas several times
interrupted him, saying he was misrepresented. Mr. Lin-
coln, in his good nature, allowed him to explain a number
of times. At one point he was very much worked up, and,
pointing his finger at Mr. Lincoln, vehemently demanded a
chance to explain. In a very excited manner, Judge Doug-
las tried to set himself right, using about fifteen minutes
of Mr. Lincoln's time. After he was through, Mr. Lincoln
spread his mouth, and, with a broad smile, said, 'I believe

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

the "Little Giant" is somewhat agitated,' and, without
further attention to the judge, proceeded with his speech.
I was so impressed with Mr. Lincoln's speech that on
leaving the State House, I said to my college mates, 'Lin-
coln is my candidate for President at the next election.'
This was six years before Mr. Lincoln was nominated at
Chicago. The next evening, with my college mates, we
called upon Mr. Lincoln at his home and complimented
him for his great speech. He received us kindly, shook
hands with us, and thanked us for our call. This was my
first meeting with Mr. Lincoln, but I met him and heard
him speak a number of times afterward."

This speech of Mr. Lincoln's was a noted one, and
nearly all his biographers mention it, but it has not
been left on record, except in small extracts. Mr.
McCord's statement, made for this book, is interesting,
and all will be glad to see the picture of his friendly
and intellectual face as it now appears.

The passage of the Kansas- Nebraska Bill and its
effects was the means of the destruction of the Whig
party, to which Mr. Lincoln belonged, the disruption of
other party lines, and the organization of a new party
with Abraham Lincoln as its acknowledged leader, which
in a few years was to decide the destinies of the United
States Government. It also had the effect of bringing
about a state of civil war in Kansas. Thousands of pro-
and anti-slavery people flocked to Kansas to help decide
the destiny of that territory. Illegal votes, bogus legis-
latures, mobs, murders, incendiary acts, and general
lawlessness were some of the fruits of Mr. Douglas'
famous bill for popular sovereignty, better known as
"'squatter sovereignty."

In 1857, Chief-Justice Taney of the United States
Supreme Court, with a majority of his associates, de-
cided on a test case, known as the "Dred Scott Case,"
74

Lincoln and the Slavery Question

that when the Constitution of the United States was
formed and adopted, a negro slave was not a person, but
simply a piece of property, — a thing, — and that his
master could lawfully take his slaves anywhere he
pleased, just as he could his horses and his cattle.

The Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the Fugitive Slave Law,
and the Dred Scott Decision greatly aroused the North.
Some declared that the latter two laws should not be
carried out. This increased the hostility of the South.
Many persons in the North assisted in what was called
the "underground railroad" — secretly assisting slaves
on their way to Canada for freedom.

When a small boy, just beginning to read, I remember
seeing at my Grandfather Todd's, in southern Indiana,
copies of the Louisville Journal (now the Courier-
Journal) with whole columns of short advertisements,
offering rewards for runaway slaves. Such advertise-
ments could easily be recognized at a glance, for each
one had a small picture of a slave with a carpet-sack on
his back making long strides for liberty.

The leading opponents of slavery were bitterly hated
and persecuted. William Lloyd Garrison was mobbed
in the city of Boston, and it was with great difficulty
that his life was saved. Elijah P. Lovejoy, who pub-
lished an anti-slavery paper at Alton, Illinois, was shot
down by a mob while defending his property and plead-
ing for free speech. Charles Sumner, because of a
speech he made, was brutally assaulted while sitting in
his chair in the United States Senate, and was so beaten
that he was compelled to give up his seat in Congress
for four years.

It was well known that neither moral suasion nor the
ordinary political methods would ever do away with

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

the curse of slavery. The people of the North debated,
prayed, preached, and voted against slaver}', while the
people of the South were equally zealous in defending
slavery, contending it was a divine institution.

While matters were in such an unsettled condition a
great explosion occurred in the fall of 1859 which
startled the entire nation. John Brown, who had ren-
dered valuable service in keeping slavery out of Kansas,
with an armed force of seventeen men, made a raid
upon Harper's Ferry, Virginia, captured the United
States arsenal, and for some time held the United States
army at bay before he was captured. He had planned
for a general insurrection among the slaves, believing
that their emancipation depended largely upon them-
selves. Brown's plans were forced before he was ready.
It was a rash act, and was not approved by the North,
but strongly condemned. Brown and others who sur-
vived the conflict were executed for inciting an insur-
rection, murder, and treason. Brown was a brave and
sincere man, but fanatical. As the explosion of the
Maine hastened the Spanish-American War, so the
John Brown raid was an important link in the chain of
events to hasten the downfall of slavery. Seward's
"irrepressible conflict" was at hand, and his 'Tiigher
law" was soon to prevail.

CHAPTER X.
The Lincoln and Douglas Debates

Candidates for the United States Senate— Seven Joint Debates —
The Paramount Issue — The "Divided House" — "Acts of a
Drama" — Douglas Charged Lincoln with Selling Whisky —
Lincoln's Denial — A Discovery — Site of the Old Still House in
Indiana — Douglas Elected — Lincoln, the Champion of Human
Liberty.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas
were candidates for the United States Senate from Illi-
nois. Mr. Douglas, who was a Democrat, had already
served as Senator, and was a candidate for reelection.
Mr. Lincoln was the Republican nominee. Both had
had considerable experience in politics. Arrangements
were made between them to jointly discuss the political
issues at seven different places, namely, Ottawa, August
21; Freeport, August 27; Jonesboro, September 15;
Charlestown, September 18; Galesburg, October 7;
Quincy, October 13, and Alton, October 15.

These were the most noted public debates in Ameri-
can history. The slavery question, with its various sid<-
issues, was the chief topic of discussion. These debates
were listened to by immense concourses of people, and
excited the interest of the whole country. Mr. Lincoln
assumed that slavery was wrong, and opposed the exten-
sion of it, while Mr. Douglas, without considering the
moral phase of the question, was in favor of leaving to
the vote of the inhabitants of a territory whether it
should become a State with or without slavery.

Mr. Lincoln's "divided house" argument, first used
at Springfield, in June, when he was nominated for

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Senator, was one of the strongest applications of scrip-
ture ever given. He said :

"We are new far into the fifth year since a policy was
initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise,
of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the opera-
tion of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased,
but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not
cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this
Government cannot endure permanently half slave and
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do
not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease
to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate
extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it
shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as
new — North as well as South."

In the course of the debates, Mr. Lincoln said of
slavery :

"The real issue in this controversy — the one pressing
upon every mind — is the sentiment on the part of one class
that looks upon the institution of slavery as a wrong, and
of another class that does not look upon it as a wrong.
. . . Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of
policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. We deal with it
as any other wrong, in so far as we can prevent it from
growing any larger, and so deal with it that in the run of
time there may be some promise of an end to it."

Because of the great principles involved, and the
wide notoriety of these debates, Mr. Lincoln said, at
Quincy :

"I was aware, when it was first agreed that Judge Doug-
las and I were to have these seven joint discussions, that

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates

they were the successive acts of a drama — perhaps I should
say, to he enacted, not merely in the face of audiences like
this, but in the face of the nation, and, to some extent, by
my relation to him, and not from anything in myself, in
the face of the world; and I am anxious that they should
be conducted with dignity and in good temper, which would
be befitting the vast audiences before which it was con-
ducted."

In the first debate, at Ottawa, Mr. Douglas said, in
reference to the early career of himself and Mr. Lincoln
in Illinois:

"I have known him for nearly twenty-five years. There
were many points of sympathy between us when we first
got acquainted. We were both comparatively boys, and
both struggling with poverty in a strange land. I was a
school teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourish-
ing grocery-keeper in the town of Salem."

It has been stated, in Chapter YIL, that in those
days to be a "grocery-keeper' implied the selling of
whisky. In his reply, Mr. Lincoln, using the third per-
son, said:

"The judge is woefully at fault about his early friend
Lincoln being a 'grocery-keeper.' I don't know as it would
be a great sin if I had been; but he is mistaken. Lincoln
never kept a grocery anywhere in the world. It is true
that Lincoln did work the latter part of one winter in a
little still-house up at the head of a hollow."

Here Lincoln plainly denies ever keeping a grocery,
but the query arises, Where did he "work the latter part
of one winter in a little still-house, up at the head of a
hollow"? In all the numerous Lincoln biographies I
have ever examined I have never seen any reference to
its location. But I have located the place.

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Reference has been made to Henry Brooner, one of
Lincoln's early associates in Indiana. At the time of
giving the other items, more than twenty years ago,
already mentioned, ''Uncle Henry" made this statement,
written at the time, the original still preserved :

"When I was about twenty-five years old [1829], Abra-
ham Lincoln came to my house, where I now live, and left
an article of agreement for me to keep. At that time, one
mile north of here, there was a distillery owned by John
Dutton. He employed John Johnston, Lincoln's step-
brother, to run it that winter, and Lincoln left the article
of agreement between the parties for me to keep."

"Oh, Uncle Henry," said I, "find that paper, and I
will give you ten dollars for it." He said his house
burned afterward, and all his papers were destroyed.
He afterward built a brick house near the same founda-
tion.

When "Uncle Henry" gave me this item, I had not
read the celebrated Lincoln and Douglas debates, and,
therefore, knew nothing of Lincoln's statement that he
had worked at a still-house. When I read the debates,
fifteen years later, and saw Lincoln's reference to his
having "worked the latter part of one winter at a little
still-house, up at the head of a hollow," I was at once
struck with what "Uncle Henry" had told me. This
certainly decides the fact that Lincoln had reference to
the time when he worked at the Dutton distillery, when
his step-brother, John Johnston, run it the winter
before the Lincolns left for Illinois, in 1830.

John Kemp, my old friend and a highly-respected
citizen, now sixty-three years old, who was born and
reared on a farm adjoining Henry Brooner, told me in
July, 1903, in Washington, Indiana, that north of the

The Lincoln and Douglas Debates

old Brooner farm there is an old farm still known as
the "Dutton farm," and that he remembered seeing,
often, when a small boy, near a spring, an old, dilapi-
dated building called the "old still-house." He had
never heard of John Johnston or of Abraham Lincoln
working there, for that was before he was born. "Uncle
Henry" had been dead thirteen years, but I had the
record of the statement he made to me.

On a bright afternoon, September 7, 1903, Mr. Kemp
took me in his buggy to see the place. The farm was
then owned by John and Harmon Steineker, and is on
the old Fredonia and Princeton highway, four miles
southwest of Huntingburg, Dubois County, Indiana.
Here is the "Dutton farm," and here is a spring in the
barn lot. Just across the road, to the right, is where
the old "still-house" stood, and there is the "hollow"
running down through the forest. As I viewed the
scene, I felt something within me akin to what old
Archimedes felt when he discovered the solution to
an important mathematical problem, and exclaimed,
"Eureka! Eureka!" ("I have found it! I have found
it!").

In the joint debates between Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Douglas, the latter carried the most popular applause,
but the former made the deeper and more lasting
impressions. Douglas was greeted with the loudest
cheers, but when Lincoln closed, the people seemed sober
and serious. As a result of the canvass, Mr. Lincoln
had a majority of four thousand of the popular vote of
the State, but it is stated that the legislative districts
were so construed that Douglas received a majority of
the ballots in the legislature, and was, therefore, re-
turned to the United States Senate. The debates

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

brought Mr. Lincoln to the front as an able and elo-
quent champion of human liberty and prepared the way
for his nomination and election to the presidency of the
United States.

CHAPTER XI.
Lincoln Nominated and Elected President

Rival Candidates — Great Enthusiasm — Lincoln's Temperance Prin-
ciples Exemplified — Other Nominations — A Great Campaign — ■
Lincoln's Letter to David Turnham — Lincoln's Election — Seces-
sion— Lincoln Inaugurated — Douglas.

Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican
candidate for President of the United States, at Chi-
cago, Illinois, May 18, 1860. Salmon P. Chase, William
H. Seward, Simon Cameron, William L. Dayton, and
Edward Bates were the opposing candidates for the
nomination. Mr. Lincoln was nominated on the third
ballot. The nomination was afterward made unani-
mous. The nomination was made amid great applause.
It has been said that the scene baffled all human descrip-
tion. Mr. Lincoln was the second Republican candidate
for the Presidency, GTeneral John C. Fremont being the
first, who was nominated in 1856.

Mr. Lincoln was at his home in Springfield, Illinois,
when he was nominated. His strong temperance prin-
ciples were again exemplified when the committee form-
ally notified him of his nomination. Some of his
Springfield friends, knowing that he did not keep or
use liquors, thought he would have nothing of the kind
on hands to refresh the committee, and offered to fur-
nish what was needed. Mr. Lincoln thanked them for
their offer, and said, "Gentlemen, I cannot allow you
to do what I will not do myself."

After the committee had notified him of his nomina-
tion, and he had responded, accepting the nomination,

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

he said that, as an appropriate conclusion to an inter-
view so important and interesting as that which had
transpired, he supposed good manners would require
that he should treat the committee with something to
drink. Soon a servant entered bearing a large waiter
containing several glasses, and a large pitcher in the
midst, and placed it on the center-table. Mr. Lincoln
arose and, gravely addressing the company, said : "Gen-
tlemen, we must pledge our mutual healths in the most
healthy beverage which God has given to man. It is
the only beverage I have ever used or allowed in my
family, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on
the present occasion— it is pure Adam's ale from the
spring." And, taking a glass, he touched it to his lips,
and pledged them his highest respects in a cup of cold
water.

The Democratic party was divided. The Northern
Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln's
old political rival. The Southern Democrats nominated
John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky. A third party,
called the "Union party," nominated John Bell, of
Tennessee. The campaign that followed was a remark-
able one. "The magic words, 'Old Abe' and 'Honest
Old Abe,' were on thousands of banners."

During the campaign, Mr. Lincoln wrote a letter to
his old friend, David Turnham, the constable of Spencer
County, Indiana, from whom be borrowed the "Revised
Statutes of Indiana," mentioned in Chapter III. This
letter is now given to the general public for the first
time :

"Springfield, Ills., Oct. 23, 1860.
"David Turnham, Esq.,

"My dear old Friend: Your kind letter of the 17th is
received. I am indeed very glad to hear you are still liv-

Lincoln Nominated and Elected President

ing and well. I well remember when you and I last met,
after a separation of fourteen years, at the Cross Road
voting place, in the fall of 1844. It is now sixteen years
more, and we are both no longer ycung men.

"I suppose you are a grandfather, and I, though married
much later in life, have a son nearly grown.

"I would much like to visit the old home, and old friends
of my boyhood, but I fear the chance of doing so soon is
not very good.

"Your friend and sincere well-wisher,

"A. Lincoln."

The election was held on the sixth of November, 1860,
and the result showed a popular vote for Lincoln of
1,857,600; for Douglas, 1,365,976; for Breckenridge,
847,953, and for Bell, 590,631. In the electoral college,
Lincoln received 180 votes, Breckenridge, 72, Bell 39,
and Douglas 12.

Because of an election of a Northern man for Presi-
dent, and fearing their "peculiar institution" was in
danger, the Southern States began the organization of
the Southern Confederacy, and when Mr. Lincoln was
inaugurated, March 4, 1861, seven Southern States had
passed ordinances of secession, followed later by four
other States. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was
chosen President of the Southern Confederacy.

Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address was noted for its
sentiments of good will and forbearance, yet he strongly
indicated his purpose to maintain the Union. He stated
that he had no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter-
fere with slavery where it then existed, and that the
people of the South could have no war unless they
became the aggressors.

Stephen A. Douglas, Mr. Lincoln's old political rival,
and who was also a presidential candidate at the time

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

of Mr. Lincoln's election, held Mr. Lincoln's hat wliile
he read his inaugural address, and stated to those near
him, "If I can't be President, I can hold his hat."
James Parton, the historian, said of Mr. Douglas : "On
the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 1861, Stephen A.
Douglas gave his hand to President Lincoln and
engaged to stand by him in his efforts to save the coun-
try. But his days were numbered. During his
herculean labors of the previous year he had sustained
himself by deep draughts of whisky; and his constitu-
tion gave way at the very time when a new and nobler
career opened up before him." He died in Chicago,
June 3, 1861, at the age of forty-eight years, and only
three months after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration.

CHAPTER XII.
President Lincoln and the Civil War

The Beginning — Personal Recollections — The War Spirit — Progress
of the War — The Emancipation Proclamation — A Fight to
Finish — Lincoln's Kindness — He Relieves a Young Soldier — -
He Names Triplets Who Are Still Living — His Reelection —
The Fall of Richmond — Appomatox — Close of the Rebellion.

On the 12th of April, 1861, after Mr. Lincoln was
inaugurated, the first outbreak of the Civil War was
the bombardment of Fort Sumter on the part of the
South. President Lincoln at once called for volunteers
to suppress the rebellion.

Although but a small boy at the time, I remember
when the war began. It was the greatest civil war in
human history, and will always be associated with
Abraham Lincoln. I remember the excitement it pro-
duced where I resided in southern Indiana and through-
out the whole country. I recall the floating flag, the
mournful sound of the drum, and the plaintive music
of the fife when volunteers were enlisting for the defense
of the nation. The neighbors talked war, the news-
papers were filled with war news. The war spirit entered
into the plays of the children. Elder fifes, old tin wash-
boilers for drums, wooden guns and bayonets, and
rudely-constructed flags were much in evidence in the
mimic drilling and marching. How patriotically the
little boys sang, as did some of their sires in the sunny
South :

"The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, up with the stars,
While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom!"

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

How the schoolboys played war in the autumn ! The
forts were made of old fence rails and logs, and how
they were bombarded with cannon-balls of green wal-
nuts, and how the "rebels" were routed and some cap-
tured! In the winter-time how the snow-balls would
fly as the two armies stood in battle array !

What a sad day it was when the news came that our
"circuit rider," a young minister, who had so often been
in our home, and who had enlisted, was killed at Vicks-
burg, Mississippi, in May, 1863.

Early in 1865, I saw my name in print for the first
time by writing a letter for publication in the Children's
Friend, published at Dayton, Ohio, in which I made the
statement, "I am a Union boy fourteen years old, and
wish the war was over."

After the Avar had continued a year and a half, with
victories and defeats on both sides, the President, on
the 22d of September, 1862, issued the provisional
Emancipation Proclamation, which was to the effect
that the South would be given from that time up to the
first of January, 1863, to lay down their arms, keep
their slaves, and find their proper places in the Union,
otherwise a proclamation would be issued to set at lib-
erty their slaves. The South did not accept the over-
tures of President Lincoln, and the Emancipation
Proclamation was issued. It was issued as a war meas-
ure, upon military necessity, and on the condition that
the traitor forfeits his property. After this the war,
upon the part of the North, was not only to suppress
the rebellion, but for the purpose of abolishing slavery,
and the South fought not only to preserve the Confed-
eracy, but for the institution of slavery itself. It was

President Lincoln and the Civil War

now a fight to finish upon hoth sides, and to settle great
principles and interests.

Those were times that tried men's souls, but none
were so tried as was the soul of him who stood at the
helm and guided the ship of state in that stormy period
of our country's history.

Throughout the war Mr. Lincoln was very kind and
forbearing in his dealings with all classes of men. Many
a deserter owed his life to the pardoning power of Presi-
dent Lincoln, one of whom I knew personally for many
years. Besides his heavy duties as President, under
such extraordinary circumstances, he went to extra
trouble in relieving persons in many cases who came
to him for help. George W. Wolf, an upright and influ-
ential citizen, who resides near Georgetown, Floyd
County, Indiana, was corporal of Company C, of the
Eighty-first Indiana Kegiment, in the Civil War, and
afterward sergeant of the Seventh Veteran Keserve
Corps. At his home, November 26, 1904, he related to
me the following incident, which came under his
observation, showing the kind nature of President
Lincoln :

"A young soldier, about twenty years of age, belonging
to an Illinois regiment, was taken sick on the field, and
sent to a hospital. For some time after his partial recovery
he was not able for field service, and was put in the First
Battalion Reserve Corps, which was in camp in the rear of
the President's mansion. He came to me one day and said:
'Sergeant, what would you do if you had been sent from
your company to a hospital, and then sent here, and could
draw no money from the paymaster on account of not
having a descriptive roll?'

" 'I would send for it,' said I.

" 'I have sent for it two or three times, but it never
came,' said he.

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

" 'Then I would go and see Uncle Abe,' said I.

" 'What,' said he, 'a private soldier go up and see the
President? Would he notice me?'

" 'Yes,' I replied, 'and I will go with you.'

"The next morning we secured a pass, and went to see
the President. The young man was very nervous. After
waiting a few minutes, we were admitted to the President's
room. Mr. Lincoln, after dropping his feet from a table,
said, 'Well, soldiers, what can I do for you?'

"Before entering, I told the young man he must do his
own talking, but I answered, 'This soldier wants to see
you about getting pay for his service.' •

"Mr. Lincoln, after a short conversation, wrote the name
of the soldier, his regiment, when he enlisted, that he had
received but one payment, that he had tried more than
once, and had failed. Then Mr. Lincoln said, T will see
to it'

"The next day, about noon, the young soldier was ordered
to go to the paymaster and draw his money. He received
all his pay, and a bounty beside, for he had been without
pay for two years. After receiving his money he joyfully
took off his cap, threw it up in the air, and exclaimed,
'Boys, if they don't treat you right, go to Old Abe, and he
will make it right.' "

In the Farm and Fireside, published at Springfield,
Ohio, of March 7, 1906, appeared an article writtemby
J. L. Graff, concerning a set of triplets, yet living, who
were named by President Lincoln. The family name is
Haskins. The picture of the triplets appeared in con-
nection with the article. The names given by Mr. Lin-
coln were Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Gideon
Welles, Secretary of the Navy, and Abraham Lincoln,
President of the United States. Eecently I wrote a
letter addressed to the triplets, in care of Abraham
Lincoln Haskins, enclosing the article and their picture,
asking for the verification of the facts stated and for

President Lincoln and the Civil War

other information. In clue time I received the following
letter :

"Baraboo, Wisconsin, January 17, 1909.
"Rev. J. T. Hobson, Dear Sir: — I received a letter from
you asking if I was one of the Haskins triplets. Yes, sir;
I am. We were born May 24, 1861, and named by Abraham
Lincoln. We are all alive and well. I am sorry to say that
I have no picture of us three, and never had them taken
but once in our lives, and the one that I had I sent to Mr.
J. L. Graff, of Chicago. One brother is here in Baraboo,
the other is in Coleman, Michigan, whose name is Simon.
That picture you sent is an exact picture of us. A Mr.
Cole, editor of the Baraboo News, tried to find the letter
that Mr. Lincoln wrote to my folks. All that he could find
out was that it was in some museum in Washington. I
wish we could get it, for I would highly prize it. We boys
never saw it. He wrote to my father and asked him if it
was true that he was the father of three boys of the same
age. He wrote and told him it was so; then Mr. Lincoln
wrote again, saying that he would be pleased to name us.
Father wrote and told him that he would be pleased to
have him name us. He said the first should be named
Abraham Lincoln, the second Gideon Welles, and the third
Simon Cameron. We were born in Starksboro, Addison
County, Vermont. My mother's name, before she was mar-
ried, was Louisa B. Grace, and if there ever was a Chris-
tian she was the very best one. If there is anything more
I can do for you I will be very glad to do so. I feel proud
of my name, and try hard to honor it in every respect.
"Yours, with respect,

"Abraham Lincoln Haskins."

I feel sure the reader will be pleased to see in this
book the picture of the triplets, yet living, who were
named by President Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln was reelected President of the United
States, November 8, 1864, and entered upon his second
term March 4, 1865. General George B. McClellan was

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

the Democratic candidate. The London Spectator
declared the second inaugural address of Mr. Lincoln
to be the noblest political document known to history.

In the meantime the war was being industriously
prosecuted. Important victories, with some reverses,
came to the North from time to time. The rebellion
finally collapsed in the fall of Richmond, Virginia,
April 3, and the surrender of General Lee to General
Grant at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.

Mr. Nichols, in his "Life of Abraham Lincoln," says :

"The spontaneous and universal rejoicings of the people
icf the country at the complete overthrow of the rebellion
were such as had never been witnessed before on any
continent. Men laughed, cried, shouted, shook hands with
each other; there were parades by day and at night. Amer-
ica was illuminated by discharge of fireworks and thou-
sands of torchlight processions. The war was over. Peace
stretched her white wings over our beloved land."

CHAPTER XIII.
Death of President Lincoln

Personal Recollections — The Tragic Event — Mr. Stanton — A Nation
in Sorrow — The Funeral — The Interment at Springfield, Illi-
nois— The House in Which President Lincoln Died — Changed
Conditions — The South Honors Lincoln — A United People —
A Rich Inheritance.

On the 15th of April, 1865, my father came hurriedly
into the house with the exclamatory interrogation,
addressed to mother, "Guess who 's dead !" Mother at
once thought of her old father, and asked if it were he.
Then came the startling news, "Lincoln is killed !"
What a shock it was to our family, as it was to thou-
sands of others. We looked at the little two-year-old
boy of the household who bore the President's name,
and, with childish superstition, wondered if he would
suffer any disadvantages because of the murder of
President Lincoln.

On Friday evening, April 14, the President was in
attendance at Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, in Wash-
ington, D. C. The proceeds of the entertainment were
to be given to a charity benefit, and it was widely adver-
tised that the President and wife, with General Grant
and others would be present. John Wilkes Booth, a
fanatic and Southern sympathizer, shot the President
in the head at 10:15. He at once became unconscious,
and never regained consciousness. He was carried
across the street to a house, where he died the next
morning at 7 : 23. Mrs. Lincoln, the son Robert T.,
Private Secretary John Hay, several members of the

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

cabinet, surgeons, Kev. Dr. Gurley, Senator Charles
Sumner, and others were present when the end came.

No one, outside of the family, was so deeply moved
at the striking clown of the President as was Mr. Stan-
ton. It will be remembered that Mr. Lincoln and Mr.
Stanton first met in 1857, at the trial of the McCormick
Reaper Patent case, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and that at the
trial Stanton slighted Mr. Lincoln and made uncompli-
mentary remarks about him. Four years later, Presi-
dent Lincoln chose Mr. Stanton a member of his cabi-
net, making him Secretary of War. Their relations
were very close during the war period up to the time of
Mr. Lincoln's death.

F. B. Carpenter, in his book, "Six Months at the
White House," says :

"A few days before the President's death, Secretary
Stanton tendered his resignation of the War Department.
He accompanied the act with a heartfelt tribute to Mr.
Lincoln's constant friendship and faithful devotion to the
country, saying, also, that he, as secretary, had accepted
the position to hold it only until the war should end, and
that now he felt his work was done, and his duty was to
resign.

"Mr. Lincoln was greatly moved by the secretary's words,
and, tearing in pieces the paper containing his resignation,
and throwing his arms about the secretary, he said, 'Stan-
ton, you have been a good friend and a faithful public
servant, and it is not for you to say when you will no
longer be needed here.' Several friends of both parties
were present on the occasion, and there was not a dry eye
that witnessed the scene."

When Lincoln fell, Stanton was almost heart-broken,
and as he knelt by his side was heard to say to himself:
"Am I indeed left alone ? None may now ever know or
tell what we have suffered together in the nation's dark-

Death of President Lincoln

est hours." When the surgeon-general said to Mm that
there was no hope, he could not believe it, and passion-
ately exclaimed, "No, no, general ; no, no !"

When Lincoln expired, and just after prayer by
Doctor Gurley, Stanton was the first to break the
silence, saying, "Now he belongs to the ages."

At the death of President Lincoln the nation was
suddenly turned from demonstrations of great joy, on
account of the closing of the war, to intense grief and
unutterable horror. W. 0. Stoddard says, "It was as
if there had been a death in every home throughout the
land." J. H. Barrett says :

"Never before was rejoicing turned into such sudden
and overwhelming sorrow. A demon studying how most
deeply to wound the greatest number of hearts, could have
devised no act for his purpose like that which sent Abra-
ham Lincoln to his grave. No man's loss could have been
so universally felt as that of a father, brother, friend.
Many a fireside was made lonely by this bereavement. Sad-
ness and despondency seized upon all. Men ceased busi-
ness, and workmen returned home with their dinner buck-
ets unopened. The merchants left their counting-rooms
for the privacy of their dwellings. A gloom, intensified by
the transition from the pomp and rejoicing of the day
before, settled impenetrably on every mind. Bells sadly
tolled in all parts of the land. Mourning drapery was
quickly seen from house to house on every square of the
national capital; and all the chief places of the country
witnessed, by spontaneous demonstration, their participa-
tion in the general sorrow. In every loyal pulpit, and at
every true altar throughout the nation, the great public
grief was the theme of earnest prayer and discourse on
the day following. One needs not to dwell on what no pen
can describe, and on v/hat no adult living on that day can
ever forget."

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Funeral services were conducted in the East Room
of the White House on Wednesday, April 19, by Doctor
Gurley, of the Presbyterian Church. Andrew Johnson,
the successor of President Lincoln, by proclamation,
recommended that memorial sendees be held that day
throughout the United States. I kept my first diary
that year, and made the following entry for that day :

"Abraham Lincoln's funeral preached; order to hold
meeting at every church in the U. S. Heard David Swartz
preach in Clear Spring. 2 Samuel, 3 chapter, 38 verse.
The minister was a Methodist, and the words of the text
were, 'Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man
fallen this day in Israel?'"

The remains of President Lincoln were taken to his
old home, Springfield, Illinois, for interment. An
address was there delivered by Mr. Lincoln's highly-
esteemed friend, Bishop Simpson, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. A large monument, appropriate to
the memory of him who "bound the nation and unbound
the slave," marks the place where his body lies in Oak
Eidge Cemetery.

The three-story brick building in which President
Lincoln died in Washington City is still standing. The
lower story is used by Mr. 0. H. Oldroyd, containing
the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial Collection, consisting of
more than three thousand articles pertaining to the mar-
tyred President. I visited this house, May 23, 1901.
In some pictures of the house in which Lincoln died
there is a flag floating from a window in the second
story, and in others the third story, with the statement
that the flag indicates the room in which President
Lincoln died. Neither is correct. He died in a small
room on the first floor, in the rear part of the building.

■gsssi-**

Death of President Lincoln

It is now nearly forty-four years since Abraham
Lincoln died. There have been great changes in our
country during that time. The South now vindicates
Lincoln, and realizes that he was their friend. Peace
and good will now prevail between the North and the
South, cemented by the blood of Lincoln.

Joseph H. Bradley, chaplain National Soldiers' Home
of Virginia, in a communication to the Ram's Horn,
quotes from a letter written by General William G.
Webb, a Christian ex-Confederate:

"Abraham Lincoln was a great and good man, and was
raised up by God to preserve this nation as one and indi-
visible, and to give freedom to the slaves. As a Confed-
erate, I could not see it; and after our defeat it took me
some time to grasp it; but it became very plain to me after
a while. God has a great work for this nation to do, and
Mr. Lincoln was, like Washington, one of his instruments
to prepare the people for this mission which the United
States is to accomplish toward the enlightenment, freedom,
and Christianization of the world."

I heard a lecture on Abraham Lincoln at Corydon,
Indiana, March 17, 1899, by Henry Watterson, the
talented editor of the Louisville Courier- Journal and
and ex-Confederate, in which he said, "If Lincoln was
not inspired of God, then there is no such thing on earth
as special providence or the interposition of divine power
in the affairs of men."

In 1903, the State of Mississippi, the second State to
pass an ordinance of secession, and the home of Jeffer-
son Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy,
requested Honorable Robert T. Lincoln to furnish a
picture of his father to hang in the new capitol building
at Jackson. The request was as follows :

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

"We of the South now realize the greatness and the good-
ness of the character of Abraham Lincoln, and would honor
his memory. Nothing that we could do would add to his
fame. We can, however, show our respect and love for
him. Permit me, therefore, in the name of the State, to
invite you to place a portrait of President Lincoln in the
new capitol of Mississippi; that it may symbolize his love
for his country, his devotion to duty, and his heartfelt
sympathy for the Southern people."

Abraham Lincoln loved the South. He was Southern
born. At his last cabinet meeting, on the date of his
death, he advised that forbearance, clemency, and char-
ity should be the controlling principles in dealing with
difficult problems awaiting practical solution.

What a rich inheritance we have in the example and
deeds, the pen and voice of Abraham Lincoln. What
an inspiration his noble life should be to struggling
young men who trace the footsteps in his eventful his-
tory, and learn the motives that prompted him in all his
actions.

Not long since I received a communication from a
stranger, a poor orphan boy in far-away Turkey. He
lives in Konia, the ancient Iconium, mentioned in the
New Testament. He says : "I have read in some books
about Lincoln. I love and admire him as one of the
greatest men that ever have been lived on earth." His
appeal for an opportunity to know more about Lincoln
was pathetic.

Many years ago a young man said :

"I was only a child when Abraham Lincoln died, but I
cannot think of his death without feeling the same pain
I would feel if it had been my father. I never saw him,
and yet it seems that I knew him and loved him person-
ally. I am sure I am a better man because Lincoln lived.
His straightforward, simple, truthful life puts all meaner
lives to shame."

Death of President Lincoln

0. H. Oldroyd, editor of the "Lincoln Memorial
Album/' says:

"His fame is world-wide and stands in history more
lasting than a monument of brass. His words will con-
tinue to sound through the ages as long as the flowers shall
bloom or the waters flow."

Another writer says :

"We hear Lincoln's words in every schoolhouse and col-
lege, in every cabin, and at every public meeting. We read
them in every newspaper, school-book, and magazine, and
they are all in favor of right, liberty, and truth, and of
honesty and reverence for God. His words, some of them
as familiar as the Bible, are on the tongues of the people,
shaping the national character."

Bishop Newman said :

"There is no name more deserving of imperishable fame
than Abraham Lincoln. He is embalmed in song, recorded
in history, eulogized in panegyric, cast in bronze, sculptured
in marble, painted on canvas, enshrined in the hearts of
his countrymen, and lives in the memories of mankind."

CHAPTER XIV.
Unpublished Official Documents

A Discovery- — Documents of Historic Value — Lincoln Owned Land
in Iowa — Copy of Letters Patent from United States, under
James Buchanan, to Abraham Lincoln, in 1860 — Copy of Deed
Executed by Honorable Robert T. Lincoln and Wife in 1892 —
Other Transfers — The Present Owner.

A few months ago I learned through a newspaper
that Abraham Lincoln, at the time of his death, owned
land in the State of Iowa, by virtue of his having served
in the Black Hjawk War of 1832. He was given a land
script, good for one hundred and twenty acres, which
he located in what is now Crawford County, Iowa.
Having never heard of this before, I went to Denison,
the county-seat, and, through the law and abstract office
of Shaw, Sims & Kuehnle, obtained the information
where the records could be found in the county record-
er's office. The above-named Shaw is the Honorable
Leslie M. Shaw, ex-Governor of Iowa and ex-Secre-
tary of the United States Treasury under President
Roosevelt.

Through the kindness of the county recorder, W. E.
Terry, I was allowed to copy the records in the case.
Probably Abraham Lincoln never saw the land, but
because of their historical value the records are here
given. The first is the letters-patent from the United
States to Abraham Lincoln. Record D, page 18. Orig-
inal Entry, page 125.

100

Unpublished Official Documents

"The United States of America.
"To All Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:

"Whereas, In pursuance of the Act of Congress, approved
March 3, 1855, entitled An Act, in addition to certain Acts,
Granting Bounty Land to certain officers and soldiers who
have been engaged in the military service of the United
States, There has been deposited in the General Land Office,
Warrant No. 68645, for 120 acres of land in favor of Abra-
ham Lincoln, Captain Illinois Militia, Black Hawk War,
with evidence that the same has been duly located upon the
east half of the northeast quarter, and northwest quarter
of the northeast quarter x»f section eighteen, in Township
eighty-four, north of Range thirty-nine west, in the district
of Lands subject to sale at Council Bluffs, Iowa, containing
one hundred and twenty acres, according to the official plat
of the survey of the said land returned to the General Land
Office by the Surveyor General, the said tract having been
located by the said Abraham Lincoln.

"Know ye, That there is, therefore, granted by the United
States unto the said Abraham Lincoln, heirs, and assigns
forever.

"In Testimony, whereof, I, James Buchanan, President of
the United States of America, have caused these Letters to
be made Patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to
be hereto affixed.
"[Seal.]

"Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the
tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One Thou-
sand Eight Hundred and Sixty, and of the Independence of
the United States the Eighty-fifth.

"By the President: James Buchanan.

"By J. B. Leonard, Sec.

"G. W. Granger, Recorder of the General Land Office.

"Recorded vol. 468, page 53."

The following copy of the warranty deed from Eobert
T. Lincoln and wife to Henry Edwards is recorded in
Deed Record 13, page 208. Robert T. Lincoln at this
time was minister from the United States to Great

101

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

Britain, under President Benjamin Harrison's admin-
istration :

"Warranty

"Filed April 26, A. D. 1892, at 2: 10 p.m., W. W. Cushman,
Recorder.
"Know All Men by These Presents:

"That we, Robert T. Lincoln and Mary H. Lincoln, his
wife, of Cook County, and State of Illinois, in considera-
tion of the sum of Thirteen Hundred Dollars ($1,300) to
us in hand paid by Henry Edwards, of Crawford County,
and State of Iowa, do hereby sell and convey unto the said
Henry Edwards the following described premises, situated
in the County of Crawford, and State of Iowa, to-wit:

"The east half of the northeast quarter, and the north-
west quarter of the northeast quarter of section eighteen
(18) in Township eighty-four (84), north of Range thirty-
nine (39), west of the Principal Meridian.

"And we covenant with the said Henry Edwards that we
hold said premises by good and perfect title, that we have
good right aud lawful authority to sell and convey the
same, that they are free and clear of all liens and all
encumbrances, whatsoever, excepting the taxes levied, or
to be levied, for the year 1892, and excepting also a lease
of said land expiring oh or about the fourth day of May,
A. D. 1894, and we covenant to warrant and defend the title
to said premises against the lawful claims of all persons,
whomsoever, excepting as against the said taxes, and the
said lease, the obligation and discharge of both of which
are hereby assumed by the said Henry Edwards.

"The said Robert T. Lincoln hereby declares that his
title to said land is wholly by descent, and derived as
follows, namely:

"That Abraham Lincoln, the patentee lof said land, died
on the 15th day of April, 1865, intestate, leaving heirs sur-
viving, his widow, Mary Lincoln, and his two sons, Robert T.
Lincoln and Thomas Lincoln, and no other heirs; that said
Thomas Lincoln died on the 15th day of July, A. D. 1871,
in the nineteenth year cf his age, intestate, and unmarried,
leaving him surviving as his only heirs his mother, said

102

Unpublished Official Documents

Mary Lincoln, and his brother, said Robert T. Lincoln;
that said Mary Lincoln died on the 16th day of July, A. D.
1882, intestate, and a widow, leaving her surviving as her
sole heir, said Robert T. Lincoln; and that the estate of
said Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Lincoln, and Mary Lincoln
were successively duly administered according to law in the
county court of Sangamon County, in the State of Illinois,
and that all claims against them were duly paid and
discharged.

"Signed the twenty-second day of March, A. D. 1892.

"Robert T. Lincoln.

"Mary H. Lincoln.

"United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

"Legation of the United States of America at London on
this 22d day of March, A. D. 1892, before me Larz Anderson,
a secretary of the Legation of the United States of America
at London, aforesaid, came Robert T. Lincoln and Mary H.
Lincoln, his wife, personally to me known to be the iden-
tical persons whose names are affixed to the above instru-
ment as grantors thereof, and acknowledged the execution
of the same to be their voluntary act and deed for the
purpose therein expressed.

"Witness my hand and the seal of said Legation the day
and year last above written.

"The Legation of the United States of America to Great
Britain. Larz Anderson,

"Secretary of Legation.''''

On the 20th of April, 1892, the above-named Henry
Edwards sold the land to Enoch T. Cochran, considera-
tion $1,500. Recorded May 2, 1892, Deed Book 12,
page 624.

On the 20th of October, 1892, Enoch T. Cochran sold
the land to the present owner, Peter F. Jepsen, consid-
eration $1,925. Recorded October 24, 1892, Deed Book
15, page 135.

I copied the foregoing records in the recorder's office,
in Dennison, Crawford County, Iowa, in the afternoon

103

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

of May 22, 1908. Mr. Jepsen, the present owner of the
land, is a retired German farmer and resides in Deni-
son. I called at his home after I had copied the rec-
ords. He came to the United States in 1867, and is
proud of the fact that he is the owner of the land that
Abraham Lincoln owned. The land joins another farm
which Mr. Jepsen owns, where he formerly resided, in
Goodrich Township, about seven miles northwest of
Denison. The present veteran county surveyor, Moses
Henry, told me that he surveyed the land Lincoln
owned, and that it is now valued at one hundred dollars
per acre.

104

HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN DIED

LINCOLN'S MILL

CHAPTER XV.

Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of
Lincoln's Birth

Preparations — General Observance — President Roosevelt Lays Cor-
nerstone of Lincoln Museum at Lincoln's Birthplace — Extracts
from Addresses at Various Places — Closing Tribute.

Nevek, perhaps, in the history of mankind has such
general recognition been given to the anniversary of
any man's birth as was given to the one hundredth
anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on Friday.
February 12, 1909. For weeks in advance the news-
papers, both religious and secular, and the magazines
were decorated with his pictures, and other pictures
illustrating many scenes in his life. The recollections
of personal friends and acquaintances, war incidents,
stories, anecdotes, and his personal traits were placed
on record, with various announcements and programs
for the coming anniversary, showed the great interest
attached to his name and his history.

The day was made a national holiday by Congress
and the proclamation of the President, supplemented by
legislatures and governors of many States. The event
was celebrated, almost without exception, by all the
common schools, colleges, and universities throughout
the nation. Churches, Grand Army posts, Young Men's
Christian Associations, the various temperance organi-
zations, clubs, trades unions, and almost every form of
organized bodies celebrated the day. Courts and legis-
latures adjourned and joined in the general anniversary

105

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

exercises, or held separate exercises. The wheels of the
general Government at Washington, D. C., stopped to
recognize the great memorial day. Business in many-
places was practically suspended in honor of the day.
In every community, town, and city the praises of
Lincoln were heard.

Orations delivered by great and undistinguished men
and women, pertaining to many phases of Lincoln's
life and character, were given. Prayers, religious and
patriotic songs were heard. Pictures, flowers, flags,
parades, and banquets were greatly in evidence. The
Gettysburg address, the Emancipation Proclamation,
the second inaugural address, Lincoln's favorite poem,
"Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" with
many other selections, were recited and read.

The Southern people, as well as the Northern, joined
in the general exercises of the day. The colored people
were enthusiastic in showing their appreciation of what
Mr. Lincoln had done for their race. In many cities
in foreign countries, including London, Berlin, Hono-
lulu, and Rome, the anniversary was observed.

The center of attraction was the celebration at Lin-
coln's birthplace, on the farm three miles from Hodgen-
ville, Larue County, Kentucky. A large tent had been
erected for the occasion, with a platform inside for the
speakers. In front of the platform was placed a rebuilt
little cabin, sixteen feet square, which had itinerated in
many parts of the country and exhibited as the cabin
in which Abraham Lincoln was born. The little cabin,
set in flowers contributed by the school children of
Kentucky, and decorated with the national colors, very
fitly illustrated the kind of a cabin in which the great
emancipator was born. When Lincoln was born in a

lOfi

Centennial Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth

log cabin on that spot, no one could imagine that a
future President was born there, and that a hundred
years later another President would stand on the same
spot to assist in celebrating his birth.

Five extra trains came from Louisville to Hodgen-
ville, bearing persons from various points in the United
States. These were conveyed by carriages to the place
of celebration. The day there was rainy, but the foreign
and local attendance was estimated at eight thousand.
Among the distinguished persons present were President
Koosevelt, Mrs. Eoosevelt, and daughter, Miss Ethel;
Mr. Loeb, the President's private secretary; Ex-Gover-
nor Joseph Folk, of Missouri, president of the Lincoln
Farm Association ; Governor A. E. Willson, of Ken-
tucky; General James G. Wilson, and Luke E. Wright,
Secretary of War.

There were various committees, guards and police.
Good order prevailed. All lines of the North and the
South were blotted out in representation, men of both
sections taking part in the exercises. Twenty-six negro
citizens, appointed by Governor Willson, as a reception
committee, represented their race.

After prayer, Ex-Governor Folk, of Missouri, presi-
dent of the Lincoln Farm Association, said, in part :

"Here, on this farm, one hundred years ago to-day, was
horn the strongest, strangest, gentlest character the repub-
lic has ever known. His work was destined to have a more
far-reaching influence than any that went before him.
"Until recently this spot which should be hallowed by every
American, was unnoticed and abandoned. Inspired by the
idea that due regard for the apostle of human liberty who
sprang from this soil demanded the preservation of his
birthplace, a few patriotic men organized the Lincoln Farm
Association, to purchase this property and to erect upon it

107

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

a memorial to that simple, but sublime life that here came
into the world. This association is purely patriotic in its
purposes, and the movement has met with a ready response
from every section of the nation. In revering the name of
Lincoln, there is now no North or South, or East or
West. There is but one heart in all, and that the heart of
patriotic America. So the memorial to be erected here, by
South as well as North, will not only be in memory of
Lincoln, but it will be a testimony that the fires of hatred
kindled by the fierce civil conflict of nearly half a century
ago, are dead, and from the ashes has arisen the red rose
of patriotism to a common country and loyalty to a common

President Roosevelt, in behalf of the nation, said, in
part :

"He lived in days that were great and terrible, when
brother fought against brother for what each sincerely
deemed to be the right. In a contest so grim the strong
men who alone can carry it through are rarely able to do
justice to the deep convictions of those with whom they
grapple in mortal strife. At such times men see through
a glass darkly; to only the rarest and loftiest spirits is
vouchsafed that clear vision which gradually comes to all,
even to the lesser, as the struggle fades into distance, and
wounds are forgotten, and peace creeps back to the hearts
that were hurt. But to Lincoln was given this supreme
vision. He did not hate the man from whom he differed.
Weakness was as foreign as wickedness to his strong, gentle
nature; but his courage was of a quality so high that it
needed no bolstering of dark passion. He saw clearly that
the same high qualities, the same courage and willingness
for self-sacrifice, and devotion to the right as it was given
them to see the right, belonged both to the men of the
North and to the men of the South. As the years rolJ by,
and as all of us, wherever we dwell, grow to feel an equal
pride in the valor and self-devotion alike of the men who
wore the blue and the men who wore the gray, so this
whole nation will grow to feel a peculiar sense of pride in
the man whose blood was shed for the union of his people,

108

Centennial Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth

and for the freedom of a race. The lover of his country
and of all mankind; the mightiest of the mighty men who
mastered the mighty days, Abraham Lincoln."

Governor Willson, in behalf of Kentucky, for her
greatest son, said, in part:

"We have met here on this farm where he was born, in
memory of Abraham Lincoln, to know for ourselves and to
prove to the world, by a record made to endure, and deep
graven on these acres, that the love of country and of its
nobly useful citizens are not dreams, nor idle words, but
indeed living, stirring, and breathing feelings. Abraham
Lincoln is claimed by all humanity and all time as the type
of the race best showing forth the best in all men in all
conditions of life.

"Here are met to-day, with equal zeal to do him honor,
soldiers of the war for and against the Union, heroes of the
Union and the Confederacy, Americans all, no one less
pledged than the other, not only by the bond of the cove-
nant of our law, but alike by the dearest feelings of his
heart and fervor of his blood, to our united country and its
beautiful flag."

General James G. Wilson, of New York, who was in
the Union Army, spoke fitting words in behalf of the
Union, while General Luke E. Wright, who was in the
Confederate Army, now Secretary of War, spoke fitting
words in behalf of the Confederacy.

President Roosevelt laid the corner-stone of the Lin-
coln Museum, which is to be built of limestone and
white marble. He spread white cement with a silver
trowel where the stone was to set. The stone, weighing
three thousand pounds, was placed in position with a
derrick. A number of articles were deposited in a leaden
box placed in the stone before it was set, among which
was the life of Lincoln written by President Roosevelt
and the speeches delivered on the occasion.

109

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

In connection with the depository of articles, an aged
negro, Isaac T. Montgomery, of Mississippi, said to
have been at one time a slave of Jefferson Davis, Presi-
dent of the Southern Confederacy, was assigned the
appropriate honor of depositing in the box a copy of
President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In
doing this he made a brief speech, in which he referred
to himself "as one of the former millions of slaves to
whom Lincoln gave freedom, and the representative of
10,000,000 grateful negro citizens."

The cabin in which it is alleged Abraham Lincoln
was born will be kept in the memorial building. It is
expected that the building will be dedicated in April,
by William H. Taft, who will be inaugurated President
of the United States, March 4, 1909.

The spot where Abraham Lincoln was born will, for
coming ages, be the most sacred shrine in all this great
country, whose government he died to save.

At Lincoln City, Spencer County, Indiana, where the
Lincolns lived fourteen years after moving from Ken-
tucky, and before moving to Illinois, and where Abra-
ham's mother lies buried, exercises were held. The
school children of Evansville, Indiana, raised money to
purchase a flag, and the school children of Indianapolis
sent a wreath of flowers, both of which were placed on
Mrs. Lincoln's grave. A procession of one hundred
school children of Lincoln City, headed by Principal
Curtis Cox and the other teachers, marched to the grave,
where the exercises were held.

At Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln's old home, and
where his body rests in the great monument erected to
his memory, imposing exercises were held in various
places well worthy of the man. Mr. Lincoln was instru-

110

Centennial Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth

mental in having the State capital moved from Vandalia
to Springfield. Ambassador Jusserand of France, Sena-
tor Dolliver of Iowa, Ambassador Bryce of England,
and William J. Bryan were among the distinguished
visitors, and who delivered addresses. A most impress-
ive feature of the occasion was the scene at Lincoln's
tomb, when Robert T. Lincoln, son of the martyred
President, stood beside the sarcophagus in which the
body of his great father rests. Here his mother, broth-
ers, and a son named Abraham Lincoln are also en-
tombed. He stood in silent meditation with tear-
dimmed eyes, with Ambassadors Jusserand, Bryce,
Senator Dolliver, W. J. Bryan, and many other distin-
guished persons gathered about. In his speech, Ambas-
sador Bryce said, in part :

"Of the personal impression he made on those who knew
him, you will hear from some of the few yet living who
can recollect him. All I can contribute is a reminiscence
of what reached us in England. I was an undergraduate
student in the University of Oxford when the Civil War
broke out. Well do I remember the surprise when the
Republican National Convention nominated him as a candi-
date for the presidency, for it had been expected that the
choice would fall upon William H. Seward. I recollect
how it slowly dawned upon Europeans in 1862 and 1863
that the President could be no ordinary man, because he
never seemed cast down by the reverses which befell his
arms, because he never let himself be hurried into premature
action, nor feared to take so bold a step as the Emancipa-
tion Proclamation was when he saw that the time had
arrived. And, above all, I remember the shock of awe and
grief which thrilled all Britain when the news came that
he had perished by the bullet of an assassin. . . .

"To you, men of Ilinois, Lincoln is the most famous and
worthy of all those who have adorned your commonwealth.
To you, citizens of the United States, he is the President

111

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

who carried you through a terrible conflict and saved the
Union. To us in England he is one of the heroes of the
race whence you and we sprung. We honor his memory
as you do; and it is fitting that one who is privileged here
to represent the land from which his forefathers came
should bring on behalf of England a tribute of admiration
for him and of thankfulness to the Providence which gave
him to you in your hour of need.

"Great men are the noblest possession of a nation, and
are potent forces in the molding of national character.
Their influence lives after them, and if they be good as
well as great, they remain as beacons lighting the course
of all who follow them. They set for succeeding genera-
tions the standards of public life. They stir the spirit and
rouse the energy of the youth who seek to emulate their
virtues in the service of the country."

At Washington City all Government and leading
business houses were closed. The Senate adjourned
until Monday, but in the House, Lincoln's famous
Gettysburg speech was read by Representative Boutell,
of Illinois. Appropriate exercises were held at Howard
University, where a large negro student body witnessed
the unveiling of a large painting of the "Underground
Railroad." Secretary of the Interior Garfield and other
speakers were on the program.

In Boston, the city sometimes called the literary "hub
of the universe," Senator Lodge gave an address on the
life and work of Mr. Lincoln before the Massachusetts
Legislature. At a meeting held in the evening in Sym-
phony Hall, John D. Long, former Secretary of the
Navy, gave an address, and Julia Ward Howe, author
of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," read a poem she
had written for the occasion, depicting Lincoln's rise
from obscurity to the leader of the nation.

112

Centennial Anniversary of Lincoln's Birth

In Chicago, the metropolis of Lincoln's adopted State,
fifty public meetings were held in Ms honor. The city
was fairly buried beneath flags, buntings, and pictures
of Lincoln. Show-windows were filled with war relics
and Lincoln mementoes. Streets were crowded with
marchers and military bands. Standing bareheaded in
Lincoln Park, in sight of the Lincoln Statue, a group
of Civil War veterans fired a presidential salute. Dexter
Pavilion, at night, was crowded, while a chorus of one
thousand voices sang patriotic songs.

At Gettysburg, where Lincoln delivered his classic
address dedicating the national cemetery, November 10,
1863, the day was duly observed. The principal exer-
cises were held on the campus of Gettysburg College,
near Seminary Ridge, where much of the first and
second days' fighting occurred during the great battle.
Lincoln's Gettysburg address was read by Judge Samuel
McSwope.

At Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Vice-President Fair-
banks said, in part:

"V/ho, among all the men of his day, has produced utter-
ances so- classic and lofty and vvhich will survive so long
as many of the speeches of Mr. Lincoln? It is impossible
to think that schools, colleges, or universities could have
increased the intellectual or moral nature of Lincoln. He
was the marvelous product of the great school of nature.
He kept close to nature's heart, close to the people, close to
the soul. . . . His life was spent in the field of conflict.
In his youth he struggled with nature. At the bar he con-
tended for the rights of his clients. In the wider field of
politics he fought with uncommon power to overthrow the
wrong and enthrone the right. He fought not for the love
of contest, but for the love of truth. By nature he was a
man of peace. He did not like to raise his hand against
his fellow-man. He instinctively loved justice, right, and

113

Footprints of Abraham Lincoln

liberty. His soul revolted at the thought of injustice and
wrong. His conscience impelled him to uphold the right
wherever it was denied his fellow-man. He could not do
otherwise."

In New York City the celebration was the most hearty
and widespread of its kind ever seen there. The city's
official celebration was held in Cooper Union, in the hall
in which Lincoln made his great speech called the
"Cooper Union Speech," delivered in 18G0. Addresses
were delivered by Joseph H. Choate and Rev. Dr. Lyman
Abbott. At a great club meeting, Booker T. Washington
delivered an address, and referred to himself as "one
whom Lincoln found a piece of property and made into
an American citizen."

In closing this little volume as an humble tribute to
the memory of Abraham Lincoln, I desire to say that,
while Mr. Lincoln possessed so many excellent traits of
character, the most significant and worthy one was his
constant anxiety, as he expressed it, to know and do
the will of God. This, in the providence of God, is
what made him truly great.

114

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Full text of "Footprints of Abraham Lincoln : presenting many interesting facts, reminiscences and illustrations never before published"

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